INNOVATION May-June 2012

that they have the ability to maximize their education outside of the classroom in a very challenging environment by pushing the boundaries on our car.”

the wheelchair by making use of a clutching mechanism within each of the wheel hubs and a connecting central shaft. In the default position, the clutch plates are engaged so that input from one hand drives power to both wheels. To turn, a user would disengage the clutch plates by pulling back on one ring of the wheelchair. This would enable the user to move the wheels independently, allowing the chair to turn. “Our primary design challenge was to implement this functionality in a way that controlling the chair would still feel natural for the user,” says Jon Zimmerman.“The clutch-hub design does this by adding no additional controls over a conventional chair and the operation is almost unchanged. The gearbox design requires a single shifting mechanism to allow for full control over their chair with the use of one arm.” Over 19 weeks, the students explored a number of different design concepts. After many hours in the machine shop, and with help from BCIT staff and a machinist colleague, the team was able to produce two prototypes. Kelvin Chan observes that one of the biggest non-technical challenges in coming up with a successful design was not getting too attached to an idea or concept: “As a designer, at any point during the design process, you are going to have to be ready to give up and walk away from your concept and start all over from scratch. Being too attached to an idea may make you over-commit to something that will ultimately not work.” Ultimately, the merit of the team’s final design was validated by their results at the Western Engineering Competition in Calgary. Their design took first place in the Innovative Design category over projects from more senior students at other top western engineering universities. Dr Cyrus Raoufi PEng was the team’s supervisor for the project. He relates: “The judging panel at the Western Engineering Competition liked the fact that the design was very focused on the end-user and that many different aspects of the overall concept were considered, such as cost and social implications, rather than only the technical parts of the design.” v

Innovative Wheelchair Design Produces Winning Result for BCIT Team A school project has turned out to be a winning proposition for a team of third year BCIT mechanical engineering students. In January 2012, team members Iaan Johnston, Kelvin Chan and Jon Zimmerman won first place at the Western Engineering Competition with a

(L-r) BCIT mechanical engineering students Jon Zimmerman, Iaan Johnston and Kelvin Chan’s design allows operation of a manual wheelchair with a single hand.

design created as a part of a second-year engineering course where students put the engineering design process into practice through projects they develop themselves. The

result, their Single-Hand Drive Wheelchair, presents a design solution for a common challenge faced by manual wheelchair users. A conventional manual wheelchair employs both hands to achieve a controlled motion, a requirement that can be an inconvenience when a user requires a hand for a separate task (eg, holding a coffee while moving down a hallway), or that can be a barrier for someone with the use of one hand. The BCIT students came up with a design allowing for rectilinear motion with the use of a single arm to operate the wheelchair. The team developed two designs to improve wheelchair functionality for two different scenarios. The first, a clutch gearbox design, is aimed at users with ability in one arm only, such as stroke victims or amputees. The design uses gears to transmit input from one side of the wheelchair to the other. A shifter is used to select the gear setup to either drive both wheels in the same direction for forwards and reverse motion, or in opposite directions to turn. The second, a clutch-wheel hub design, assists a user to multitask while controlling

Building Bridges

areas of practice construction professional liability insurance environmental

commercial property mediation and arbitration

workplace law builders liens

John Singleton, Q.C. | jsingleton@singleton.com Stephen Berezowskyj | sberezowskyj@singleton.com

t h e p r o b l e m s o l v e r s ™

Singleton Urquhart llp 1200 – 925 West Georgia Street Vancouver, BC V6C 3L2 Toll Free 1 877 682 4404 | T 604 682 7474 | F 604 682 1283 www.singleton.com | su@singleton.com Singleton Urquhart llp 1200 – 925 West Georgia Street Vancouver, BC V6C 3L2 Toll Free 1 877 682 4404 | T 604 682 7474 | F 604 682 1283 www.singleton.com | su@singleton.com

31

M ay/ J u n e 2 012

i n n o va t i o n