PHONE: (313) 593-5644
DATE: June 29, 2004
Students design device to assist arm-disabled and amputee bicycle riders
DEARBORN---A professor's bicycle accident and his difficulty riding
home with an injured arm was the inspiration for one of the award-winning
team projects in the College
of Engineering and Computer Science's annual senior
design competition this year.
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Mechanical engineering students (left to right)
Justin Black, Aron Grajek, Jim Szymusiak and Sam Seldon show off
the device they designed as a class project to assist arm-disabled
and amputee bike riders.
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Four mechanical engineering
students, under the direction of faculty advisor Prof. Alan Argento, designed
a device to assist arm-disabled and amputee bike riders with better control
of their bikes while riding on rough, uneven terrain.
The project, created by students Justin Black, Aron Grajek, Sam Seldon
and Jim Szymusiak, tied for first place overall in the competition with
a computer and information
science team that designed a Parametric Model Converter project. The
CIS students--Don Barnes, Paul Bowers, Seema Kapur and Inna Stashko--worked
under the direction of Prof. Bruce Maxim.
The mechanical engineering students began work on their project after
seeking advice from Argento, who told them a story about falling off his
bike, injuring an arm, and having a difficult time riding home with only
one healthy arm.
"He told us how hard it was to steer the bike because of the loose
terrain, pot holes and rocks in the road," student Sam Seldon said.
"His arm became very tired from constantly having to 'fight' to keep
the bike going in a straight line. He thought that it would be nice to
have a device that could help a rider to better control a bike using only
one arm.
"We immediately saw the potential of such a device," he said.
"If it could be successfully designed, built and installed onto a
bike, it could really help a lot of people. We loved the idea and immediately
adopted it as our project."
The students developed a survey to gather ideas and experiences of arm-amputee
and disabled bike riders, and performed a subjective evaluation of one-handed
riding on a conventional bicycle.
Instability--especially while turning sharply, hitting bumps or going
over rough terrain--was found to be the biggest concern of one-handed
riding.
Seldon said the team came up with four initial design ideas to assist
bikers and address the instability issue: a cable disk brake system, a
hydraulic system, a CAM system and a magnetic brake system.
"We decided that the cable disk brake system was the best choice
because its design was simple, it was easy to build, it was cheap to build,
and it would be easy for a person to maintain," Seldon said.
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The cable disk brake system designed by UM-Dearborn
mechanical engineering students.
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The design is a disk brake that is clamped and attached to the handlebars
of a bike. The device helps to hold the front wheel steady and allows
the frame of the bike to work with the arm to resist the lateral load
on the wheel while riding over rough terrain.
Seeing the system installed on a bike for the first time thrilled the
students. "I was so happy to see that our system actually worked
the way that we had designed it to work," Seldon said. "A lot
of times when prototypes are built and tested, a flaw in the design is
discovered that prevents the system from working properly. We spent a
lot of time analyzing our system analytically to make sure that the stresses
within each part were acceptable so that no part of the system would fail,
and I was glad to see that our time was well spent."
The most rewarding part of the project, according to Seldon, was working
on a device that has the potential to help a lot of people.
"In the past, I have done design projects that fulfill the requirements
of the class, but really don't have any value outside of the classroom,"
he said. "It was really great to finally be able to work on something
that has application in the real world."
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