PROJECT STATEMENT

؜This project is a game where players must climb a wall blindfolded. The handholds use soft robotics to direct the user to the next handhold. The players are all blindfolded so that no matter what condition your vision is, you can participate and play the game with no disadvantage if you have limited vision.

PERKINS VISIT

+ SECONDARY RESEARCH

When we went to Perkins, we learned about the different types of sports. Some of these include goalball and track. We wanted to find a way to make climbing more accessible to people who have a vision impairment so that they don't need a caller to help them practise and climb. We also learned about a game called handball, which is a game that is played at Perkins, where the players are all blindfolded and crawl on their hands and knees. The ball has a bell in it so the players can locate it, and there are two goals where the players throw the ball to score points.

؜MUST BE ABLE TO COMMUNICATE UP, RIGHT, LEFT, UP-RIGHT, AND UP-LEFT

؜HAVE A SIMPLE BUT REBUST

MECHANICAL DESIGN

MUST BE ABLE TO COMMUNICATE THE LOCATION THROUGH DIFFERENT MEDIUMS

FUNCTIONAL

REQUIREMENTS

ASSISTIVE TECH PRECEDENT

TactileGrip

Mihir Sharma

BEHAVIORAL PRECEDENT

Climber guide

SOFT ROBOTICS PRECEDENT

Texture-changing skin

Cornell University engineers

PRECEDENTS

SKETCH

EXPLORATION

PROTOTYPE 1

A low fidelity prototype of a hand hold with two bladders made with balloons. This was one of the first prototypes we made and it shows the basic idea of how this would work.

PROTOTYPE 2

؜In this prototype, we 3D printed the rock mold aand inserteda bballoon intoit. The balloon was inflated to convey the direction of the next hold. This was so we can test how much force the bladders and push with, and how the bladders fit into the handhold.

PROTOTYPE 3

؜This is the valve that is able to redirec the air input into one of the 5 outputs that are connected to the 5 bladders in the hand hold.

diagram of valve

Mold for the valve

This is the mold for the silicone pieces on the valve.

Silicone

Pins

Pins

caps

main mold

USE DIAGRAM

ASSEMBLY DIAGRAM

؜INSERT VIDEO HERE

FUTURE CONSIDERATIONS

؜Make a model with more soft robotic actuators that can communicate 5 directions (up, right, left, up-right, up-left)

Refine the valve system

؜Start thinking through more of the rules and the gamification piece

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THANK YOU!