STEM II is taught by Dr. Crowthers. In STEM II we work on large-scale group projects building assistive devices for a client. We use our various robotics, coding, 3d printing, and documentation skills to work together to build our project. We present out projects at the Assistive Technologies fair. The 2023 AT fair is being held at Mass Academy on May 24th. Please scroll down for more information about my STEM II project.
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Many people suffer from upper-body mobility issues caused by a disability. This can make living life independently, and causes people to rely on a caretaker for simple daily tasks like feeding themselves. Requiring a caretaker for simple tasks has been proven to make people feel guilty or powerless. Additionally, non-caretaker methods like robotic devices are often prohibitively expensive, with some robotic arms costing $50,000 or more!
Our devce took a lot of planning, prototyping, and assembly to build. Of our three preliminary design sketches, we ended up choosing Kweku's Scopey design. We made many prototypes for our telescoping utensil shaft and plenty of CAD (computer aided design) models before we began to build our robot. Marlon and Omar worked with coding our device using Arduinos and a Raspberry Pi 4B.
My group's approach to this problem was to make an affordable and functional feeding device using less than $500 of materials. Our device is called Scopey, named after its telescoping arm that helps the robot pick the food off of the plate. We designed Scopey using Onshape, 3d printing, and many cardboard iterations. It is coded in Phython and uses a Raspberry Pi as its primary computer.
Scopey was built and coded in less than two months with the help of my seven wonderful group members: Kweku, Jenny, Giang, Amy, Vai, Omar, and Marlon!