A Capstone Robotics Design Program to Assist the Disabled

PI: Selekwa, Majura f .提案号：1067085本项目的目标是在北达科他州立大学（NDSU）开发一个本科毕业设计项目，培训学生掌握机器人技术技能，直接帮助有行走和操作障碍的人。作为本科工程训练的一部分，该项目将挑战学生设计和开发机器人设备的原型，以提高行走障碍者的生活质量。学生们将在机械工程、工业工程、电气和计算机工程等部门的团队中工作。这些团队必须通过采访Bethany退休生活机构的专业治疗师来研究残疾人的特殊需求，并开发产品设计来满足这些需求。预计每学年将招收五个学生团队，每个团队将在两学期结束时展示他们的原型。学生不仅有机会学习工程实践，还将获得团队合作和多学科技能，项目管理技能，更重要的是他们将学习如何利用他们的工程知识来解决残疾人的具体问题。这种经历可能会影响一些学生选择设计和制造残疾人设备的职业专业。该项目的长期目标是通过培训设计和开发适合人类行动和操纵的新技术的工程专业知识，提高残疾人的独立性。智力优势：该项目将有助于在康复和辅助机器人领域的发现和创新，这是基础工程知识的进步。该计划亦将成为另一个模式，透过辅助及康复机器人设计项目，加强工程教育的合作学习，同时训练学生的工程实践能力。更广泛的影响：它将通过为本科生提供机会，通过为残疾人解决现实世界的问题来学习工程实践，从而促进NDSU的教学和学习。该项目还将有助于培养来自不同工程学科的工程学生的多学科团队合作技能，从而创建一支专注于辅助和康复机器人的多学科性质的全球STEM劳动力队伍。它可以影响工程专业的学生专门为残疾人设计和开发设备。因此，它有可能改善1600多万美国行动和操作障碍患者及其家庭的生活质量，并降低照顾这些残疾人的医疗费用。

PI: Selekwa, Majura F.Proposal Number: 1067085The objective of this project is develop an undergraduate capstone design program at North Dakota State University (NDSU) for training students in skills on robotic technologies that directly aid people with walking and manipulation disabilities. As part of the undergraduate engineering training, this program will be challenging students to design and develop prototypes of robotic devices that improve the quality of living for people with walking disabilities. Students will work in teams drawn from the departments of mechanical engineering, industrial engineering, and electrical and computer engineering. These teams will have to study the specific needs of disabled people by interviewing professional therapists at Bethany Retirement living facility and develop product designs to satisfy those needs. A total of five teams of students are expected to be recruited in each academic year of two semesters, and each team must show their prototype at the end of the year. Students will not only get the opportunity to learn the practice of engineering, but also will acquire teamwork and multidisciplinary skills, project management skills, and more importantly they will learn how to use their engineering knowledge to solve specific problems for the disabled.This experience is likely to influence some of the students to take career specialties in design and manufacturing of devices for the disabled persons. The long term goal of this project is to increase the independence of people who live with disabilities by training engineering expertise that will design and develop appropriate new technologies for human mobility and manipulation.Intellectual Merits: The project will contribute towards discovery and innovation in rehabilitation and assistive robotics field, which is an advancement in fundamental engineering knowledge. The project will also serve as another model for enhancing cooperative learning in engineering education while training students the engineering practice through assistive and rehabilitation robotics design projects.Broader Impacts: It will advance teaching and learning at NDSU by offering opportunities for undergraduate students to learn the engineering practice by working to solve real-world problems for people with disabilities. The project also will help in building multidisciplinary teamwork skills among engineering students from different engineering disciplines, thereby creating a globally engaged STEM workforce of multidisciplinary nature that focuses on assistive and rehabilitation robotics. It can influence engineering students to specialize in design and development of devices for the disabled. Therefore, it is likely to improve the quality of living for more than 16 million American people who live with mobility and manipulation disabilities and their families, and also reduce the medical costs for caring people with these disabilities.