Table of Contents
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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

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.
- Pictures of finished and installed project
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
This outline for the posting of team created documents follows the general product development process presented in the textbook "Product Design and Development" by Ulrich and Eppinger.
Portions of the team documents have been prepared by a DPM student prior to the launch of this project. This information is intended to help get the team started with a first draft needs assessment and work breakdown structure. The team members can adapt this information as the project progresses.
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Planning
Intellectual Property Considerations
Preliminary Work Breakdown Structure
Concept Development
Establish Target Specifications
Important and Useful Senior Design 1 Documents
Customer Needs and Engineering Specifications
Important and Useful Senior Design 2 Documents
Detail Design
Design for Strength & Torque Calculations
Testing and Refinement
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)
Managerial Design Review Presentation (SD II)