Project P06201: Modified Home Entry

Mission Statement:

The goal of the design project was to design an automatic door opener for the Arc of Monroe County assisted living location in Rush NY.

Background:

The Arc of Monroe County is an organization sponsored by Monroe County to care for individuals with various physical and mental disabilities. They run many assisted living locations throughout Monroe County and provide a wide variety of services to these individuals. The location we will be concerned with is in Rush NY. At this location, their are individuals who use wheelchairs. These individuals would like to have automatic door openers on the main doors of their residence, so they can move freely in and out of their residence. Commercial systems are to expensive for use at this location. The National Science Foundation (NSF) has agreed to provide $1500 to a senior design team to create a prototype automatic door opener for use at this residence. The goals of the design team are listed below.

Goals:

1) The system should open and close the door with only an input by the operator.

2) The operator will activate the system via a wireless remote so that one can be given only to those individuals who require them. Individuals who will receive remote controls will be selected by the certified Occupational Therapy Assistant for the Arc of Monroe County.

3) This remote will only activate the system when the system is not in operation.

4) Regular function of the door should be preserved. The door should open and close as it normally would and also should be able to be locked and unlocked in the conventional manor using a key.

5) After being opened, the door should close automatically after a length of time to be specified by Kristen Quinlan. The doors can also be closed by an operator input to the system.

6) The door should detect an object (either a person or inanimate object) in its path and stop moving when one is detected. It should then resume motion when the obstacle has been cleared.

7) Long term reliability and ease of maintenance are also important goals. The system should be very reliable. Ease of maintenance is an important factor as well. In the event that the system malfunctions, the staff at the two locations should be able to diagnose and take the appropriate steps to resolve any problems.

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Award No. BES-0527358.

Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.