P08002: Automated Parallel Bars

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Table of Contents

1 Project Overview
2 Project Pictures
3 Administrative Information
4 Team Documents

Project Overview

The physical therapy clinic at Nazareth College currently makes use of adjustable parallel bars to aid patients in practicing walking. The existing system is difficult to adjust (6-pin system) and the bars are not attached to the uprights that support them. Often, due to the length of the bars and difficulty in aligning, the bars are not completely horizontal. Additionally, if a therapist gets a patient into position on the bars, only to find out that the height needs a slight adjustment, it is often difficult for the patient to sit back down and stand up again so the session is aborted. To improve the system, the clinic would like to have a set of bars with automated height adjustment.

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.

The primary challenges of this project are:

Ensuring that each bar can be adjusted smoothly and evenly
Developing a system that is rigid enough to support patient weight during a session, but is still adjustable when someone is leaning on the bars

Project Pictures

Parallel Bars

There are 6 uprights that hold the bars (3 for each bar). This system uses a simple pin locking system which makes setup very tough.

Picture of the base of the upright

Pictures of finished and installed project

Full system Without Bars

Raising Mechinism Without Bars

Start, without bars. At max hight

Raising Mechinism With Bars

Old vs new comparision

full system

Administrative Information

Project Name: Automated Parallel Bars
Project Number: P08002
Project Family: NSF Assistive Devices
Track: Assistive Devices and Bioengineering
Start Term: 2007-9
End Term: 2007-12
Faculty Guide: Elizabeth DeBartolo
Faculty Counselor: Matthew Marshall
Project Lead: Ryan Hellems
Primary Customer: J. J. Mowder-Tinney
Customer contact information: Nazareth College Physical Therapy; JJ Mowder - Tinney PT, MS, NCS, CWS; Director of Clinical Education; Assistant Professor of Physical Therapy; jmowder3@naz.edu; 585-389-2908 (Office); 585-389-2908 (Fax)
Principle Sponsor or Sponsoring Organization:: National Science Foundation

Team Documents

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Published Documents

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Concept Design Review Documents (SD I)

Concept Design Review Pre-Read (SD I)

Detailed Design Review Documents (SD I)

Managerial Design Review Presentation (SD I)

Technical Conference Publication (SD II)

Poster Publication (SD II)

Managerial Design Review Presentation (SD II)

Photo Gallery