I-Corps: Advancing access equity and user safety through bio-inspired all-terrain mobility solutions

这个i-Corps项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是使行动能力受限的人获得更公平的物理准入，增加甘蔗使用者的安全，并减少行动援助准入的经济障碍。该项目通过提供生物力学证据来验证新甘蔗设计的功能，从而加强了对科学和技术的理解。这既将鼓励披露行动辅助设计的实验理由(该领域一直缺乏)，也将突显受自然启发的设计为解决社会挑战做出贡献的潜力。这一创新特别提供了一种新的生物力学方法来设计稳定活动辅助装置，以增加其通用性和安全性。这为帮助数百万美国人以安全有效的方式实现移动性独立，增加接入公平和用户信心做出了明显贡献。仅在美国就有大量的移动辅助设备用户，而且有证据表明，这项技术可以比标准设备操作起来更舒适、更多功能，这表明它具有巨大的商业潜力。此外，直接面向用户和可以提供共享设备的社区空间进行营销，减少了许多财务和后勤障碍，这些障碍往往限制了获得辅助设备的机会。探索后一个利基市场也将增强这项技术的潜在商业影响。这个i-Corps项目基于一种受生物启发的全地形手杖的开发，这种手杖在不平坦的自然地形上增加了设备的稳定性，并减少了对用户身体的影响。目前市场上销售的拐杖严重依赖于使用者的身体能力，并与跌倒相关伤害和过度使用伤害的风险增加有关。他们也缺乏公开可用的科学证据来支持他们的设计的有效性。该项目支持的仿生甘蔗设计经过了广泛的生物力学测试，以验证其在各种用户场景中增加功能的潜力，并与行业标准甘蔗相比，将用户受伤的风险降至最低。支持这项技术的研究集中在用户经常遇到的环境中测试与功能相关的特性，从而为未来移动辅助设备的生物力学测试提供了一个模型。此外，这项研究的自然启发设计方法体现了将原则从自然模型转移到工程技术以简化设计过程的潜力。希望这将激励其他工程师和设计师将自然系统作为设计模型，以解决未来移动辅助设备中的技术挑战。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is to make physical access more equitable for people with mobility limitations, increase cane user safety, and mitigate financial barriers to mobility aid access. This project enhances scientific and technological understanding by providing biomechanical evidence to validate the functionality of a new cane design. This will both encourage disclosure of experimental justification for mobility aid designs (which has been lacking in the field) and highlight the potential of nature-inspired design to contribute to solving societal challenges. This innovation specifically offers a novel biomechanical approach to designing stabilizing mobility aids to increase their versatility and safety. This provides a clear contribution to helping millions of Americans achieve mobility independence in safe and effective ways, increasing access equity and user confidence. The high number of mobility aid users in the US alone and the evidence that this technology can operate with more comfort and versatility than standard devices indicate its significant commercial potential. Moreover, marketing directly to users and to community spaces where shared devices can be available decreases many financial and logistical barriers that often limit access to aids. Exploring the latter niche market will also enhance this technology’s potential commercial impact.This I-Corps project is based on the development of a bio-inspired all-terrain cane that increases the device’s stability on uneven, natural terrains and decreases impact to a user’s body. Currently marketed canes rely heavily on a user’s physical capability and have been linked to an increased risk of fall-related injuries and overuse injuries. They also lack publicly available scientific evidence that supports the effectiveness of their designs. The bio-inspired cane design supported by this project has undergone extensive biomechanical testing to verify its potential to increase functionality in a variety of user scenarios and minimize the risk of user injury as compared to an industry standard cane. The research supporting this technology centered around testing functionally-relevant characteristics in environments commonly encountered by users, thus offering a model for future biomechanical testing of mobility aids. Furthermore, the nature-inspired design approach to this research exemplifies the potential of transferring principles from natural models to engineered technologies to streamline the design process. The hope is that this will inspire other engineers and designers to look to natural systems as design models to solve future technological challenges in mobility aids.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.