Will's Knee Pads

What?

For an inter-collegiate assistive tech hackathon, I worked with a team of two occupational therapists, a mechanical engineer, and a human factors engineer to create adjustable, comfortable knee cuffs for our client, Will.

These cuffs mount onto Will’s stander and can be translated horizontally, allowing Will and his team to adjust his position as needed.

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Why?

Will uses a power wheelchair and a stander. When he stands, his knees tend to deviate to the right, which puts him in an uncomfortable position. So, we aimed to create form-fitting cuffs tailored to his knee measurements to keep his knees in place.

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How?

Our timeframe was short, and we wanted to build something Will could actually use—not just a prototype for a presentation.

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We spoke to Will regularly, took his knee measurements, and also gathered the dimensions of his wheelchair and stander. We 3D-printed the knee cuffs, covered them with foam and colorful tape to make them comfortable and align with Will’s aesthetic preferences.

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These cuffs slid along 80-20 rods mounted onto a wooden slab with screw holes that matched those on the stander, making it easy to bolt them in and out.

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What did I learn?

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• How to use 80-20 rods for a sturdy, robust design.
   

• How to collaborate with individuals from different technical backgrounds and universities: we weren’t all engineers familiar with fabrication, but each team member brought valuable expertise that we were able to leverage in a short time.
   

• How to iterate a design based on client feedback (we adjusted the dimensions a few times)

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