Date of Award

6-2014

Document Type

Open Access

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science

Department

Mechanical Engineering

First Advisor

William Keat

Language

English

Keywords

standing, people, medical, sitting, activities, elderly

Abstract

Many elderly people and injured people suffer from physical complications that make it difficult or dangerous for them to perform everyday activities, thereby inhibiting their mobility. Some of these activities include walking, standing, and sitting. As a result, it is no surprise that many companies in the medical industry have already attempted to construct an array of options to aid these people, including basic medical walkers, and standing-assist furniture, poles, and machines. Although these options are fair choices, they fail to integrate portability, simplicity, and multi-functionality together. Therefore, this thesis focuses on designing and building a dual purpose machine that can function as a portable medical walker as well as a standing and sitting aid. The purpose of this is to increase the mobility of independent and resilient people who struggle to move around on their own. A thorough investigation was conducted to determine the natural motion of a person going from the seated to standing position and vice versa. From that analysis, it was determined that both the standing and sitting motions were identical, and that the upper body of a person naturally arced in a manner consistent with a circle. Using the data acquired from this analysis, the natural upper body motion was replicated by designing a crutch mechanism/linkage. Then, a walker frame was modeled around the crutch mechanism. Once the final detailed design was in place, a prototype was constructed and its range of capabilities was examined.

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