Patient: David
Age: Middle-Aged
History**:** Was involved in an automobile accident that left him unable to move his legs and with limited motion in his arms
About: Is quadriplegic, enjoys various forms of exercise, mainly swimming, and is interested in participating in an Ironman triathlon
When swimming, David faces great water resistance and drag due to his legs being limp underwater
Expresses interest in straightening his legs and potentially assisting him with swimming using different stroke styles
<aside> 💡 Our Mission: Design a user-accessible device capable of holding David’s legs rigidly that can be operated by David completely independently.
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From the start, our entire group was in agreement that our design needed to be as simple as possible to cater to David’s desire to swim nearly unassisted**.** The goal was clear, keep David’s legs straight, but there were various ways to approach this problem. Initially, we had discussed the development of an entire exoskeleton that used force sensors to assist the motion of his arms while keeping his legs rigid. However, after attempting to put ourselves into our patients and interviewing him as well, it became more apparent that what was actually needed was something more akin to a regular pool device, like a pool buoy.
<aside> 🧠What I learned: When designing a product for a specific patient, taking the perspective of that patient could lead to the best potential solution in the scenario rather than entertaining complex, theoretical designs.
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Initial low-fidelity prototype
We decided to produce a wearable device that consisted of three different components. These components were a knee brace, a belt, and a pool buoy attachment. The knee brace would keep the legs straight and would be simultaneously attached to the belt to ensure that there are no awkward drops in buoyancy from the pelvis to the legs. Furthermore, because during the Ironman triathlon, competitors are not allowed any form of floating device we included a pool buoy attachment that uses magnets to seamlessly attach and detach that David can use when training to help build up his strength.
The double knee brace
The belt
Detachable buoy, secured to brace via magnets
<aside> 🧠What I learned: Resourcefulness. Many of the components of our device are pre-existing components that have been repurposed extensively to build J.A.R.V.I.S 2.0
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In order to adhere to our patient’s capabilities we needed to ensure that any Velcro attachment came accompanied by thumb hooks such that even those with inoperable fingers are able to attach and detach their device.
Thumbhook was designed and 3D printed. (Visible white loop)