Every year approximately 360,000 people die by drowning, which is about 40 people a day. Most of these accidents happen due to kids under 14 or even adults swimming in areas that are hazardous or not appropriate for their swimming ability. Although most large public beaches do have lifeguard stands, it only takes about a minute for someone to drown. In rough waters, or choppy seas, a lifeguard in most situations would be unable to help a victim.

            Our solution to address the problem is our SafeBoat. In malls and many large public buildings, Segways are used to patrol an area. The equivalent vehicle for water would be our SafeBoat. This paddle board size boat would be cheap, portable and easy to control. Besides having lifeguards in stands, there would be additional lifeguards patrolling the beach on these boats. They would be totally electric to prevent gas fumes/pollution, and would serve the need for a few hours. In case of emergency, the lifeguard would be able to spot the victim quickly and move towards them. Then they would be able to throw a rope to the victim, or if necessary pull them on board if unconscious. In the front of the vehicle would also be a stretcher in case of an accident or an injury in the water. Once a victim is rescued they could then be driven onto the beach to an ambulance fast and easy.

Do you know how many people it takes to bring a baby stroller up stairs? There are two reasonable solutions. One solution is to have another person pick up the front of the stroller while you pick up the back of the stroller and carry the stroller up the stairs. Another solution is picking up the baby and dragging the stroller up the stairs behind you. Now, you have no need to worry about how you will get your stroller and baby safely up the stairs, for we have created the Stair Climber. The Stair Climber is a stroller that can safely go up and down stairs. The problem we tried to tackle is people having trouble taking their babies and strollers safely up the stairs. The Stair Climber does this at the switch of a button, in a safe and efficient manner. The Stair Climber is a fairly simple piece of machinery. It works with four motors each attached to individual wheels. These wheels are not your ordinary wheels. The wheels have the ability to go into Stair Climbing and descending mode. In this version, the wheel simple overlaps some of its pieces to create a cross-like wheel to propel itself up and down the stairs. The motors run with a simple flick of a switch, located at the back of the stroller. There is also one nine volt battery that powers all of the motors which spin the wheels.

For our first design, we were going to use a half circle to climb the stairs and I worked on that for over a day before realising that would not work. For the second iteration, we went to a design that was just an X with nothing sticking out of the sides. We quickly realised that we would need more traction than that design offered more traction that is when we went to the current wheel shape but only one wheel. Then when working Monday we came up with the idea to use two wheels. the two wheels allow you to climb upstairs yet still have a smooth ride on flat ground. We spent the rest of the week improving on this design. was building the model staircase. The staircase was very hard to build. David helped us a lot by teaching us the way in which the staircase should be assembled so it can hold the appropriate amount of weight. We also had multiple iterations of our stroller before we ended up with our final product.

During the course of this project, we have designed a fully autonomous package delivery vehicle. This device is capable of delivering packages from the post office and delivering them to people’s houses while also picking up packages to be delivered to the post office in almost any location.

Problem: The delivery industry is slow, expensive, and inefficient, especially today with more and more people shopping online.

Solution: The STAD (System for Transportation of Autonomous Delivery) is an automatic delivery system that does not require any drivers.

Detailed Solution: Our product is a self driving package delivery truck that gives packages to a drone when it reaches its destination, and then the drone carries the package to the door.  The is an improved system because it is cheaper than human labor, and the truck can drive at night, reducing the impact of delivery trucks (semis, vans, etc.) on traffic. Also, with the proper sensors, the truck’s safety performance would not be reduced at night.

We just found a similar idea created by a delivery company called Amp Holdings. They had the idea to launch a delivery drone from a truck parked close to the house rather than launching drones from a central warehouse far away from the house.

Our final idea is to have a carousel that lifts the packages up to the top of the truck. The drone then grabs the package and flies to the house. There can be more than one carousel to maximize the truck’s storage space. The drone is mounted on a sliding mount so that it can move into position over each carousel.

Delivery Steps: 

1. The STAD gets the packages from the post office

2. The STAD drives to the next house

   1. The carousel is rotated so that the correct package is accessible

   2. The drone is moved into position over the package, ready to be deployed

3. The STAD arrives at the house

   1. The drone is dropped onto the package causing the arm to gram the package

4. The drone flies the package over any obstacles (fences, stairs, people, etc.) to the house

5. The drone releases the package on the porch of the house

6. The drone flies back to the STAD

   1. The drone docks with the STAD

   2. The drone’s battery is replaced with a charged battery

7. The truck leaves the house, repeating the same process from step 2

Delivery trucks are uniform in design but not uniform in package quantity. This creates two issues, that you are constantly taking up unnecessary space, and that it is extremely difficult to maneuver such large vehicles.  This was solved by the folding and the module design of the storage compartments After many iterations and hours of brainstorming, we came up with the idea of a foldable delivery truck. This would allow the driver to fold and unfold the delivery truck when necessary. Once the driver is finished delivering all of the packages, they would fold the truck making it much easier to drive, especially in urban areas.

Over 6.8 million American residents rely on assistive devices to help them with their mobility and 1.7 million of which, use wheelchairs or scooter rides. The loss of mobility in ones legs can be due to multiple disabilities such as spinal cord injuries or medical amputations. Losing the ability to walk not only limits what you can do, but also the freedom of where you can go. It is physically impossible for a paraplegic to operate a normal vehicle due to the inability to use the gas and break, as well as the struggle of moving in and out of their wheelchair in order to move into the car’s seat. 

Today, there are vehicles that are handicapped accessible, however, those that are still require assistance from an outside party to assist them while getting in the vehicle, and they also do not take into account where they will put their wheelchair that they are moving out of. The HandiCarpt is the vehicle we designed to give paraplegic the freedom to drive a car and increase their opportunities to reach their desired destination without needing assistance from an outside party, or even having to leave their wheelchair. 

This vehicle is equipped with an automatic telescoping ramp, so the person can easily roll into the back of their vehicle; a manually adjustable platform in front of the steering wheel which fastens tightly and securely, so that the person’s can safely drive while in their wheelchair; a headrest that automatically comes down from the top of the car and fasten to the top of the wheelchair for head and neck support; and  a yoke-style steering wheel, so the person can control the acceleration by pulling it toward them and deceleration by pushing it forward, this is also a safe feature because it allows the driver to maintain a consistent acceleration by only turning the yoke 90 degrees to the right and left. 

The HandiCapt is a safe way for paraplegics to travel on the roads as they please. Adjusting to all types of people and their wheelchairs, this product, like no other, expands the opportunities of transportation for those who's lives are limited and turns the “I can’t” into an “I can”.

How can we design efficient devices that service our everyday mobility needs while responding to individual, personalized requirements? This studio provides the context to envision and experiment with new personalized modes of mobiltiy, and to develop concepts, functional prototypes and applications, by researching new means of interaction between the physical and the digital world.