Department - Author 1
Mechanical Engineering Department
Degree Name - Author 1
BS in Mechanical Engineering
Date
6-2017
Primary Advisor
Sarah Harding
Abstract/Summary
Megan is a 21-year-old Special Olympian in the local San Luis Obispo area who loves to move. Due to a visual impairment, Megan is limited in the amount of time she can be active and she currently relies on the help of a partner when she exercises. For example, during the school year, Megan participates in the Friday Club in the local recreation center where she teams up with a kinesiology student to obtain physical activity. She also competes every year in the Special Olympics held at Cuesta College. Megan races in the 50- and 100-meter dash holding a baton attached to a rope as a guide. Her other source of training is on a treadmill; however, she is dependent on a guide to help her walk safely. While she enjoys this, Megan would like to be able to exercise safely without relying on assistance.
Michael Lara, the Sports Manager for the San Luis Obispo County Special Olympics, has been sponsoring senior projects at California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) for nine years. Mr. Lara wanted to help Megan increase her physical activity and find more independence, so he brought this project, known as “Megan’s Treadmill,” to the mechanical engineering senior project class. The goal of this project was to adapt a treadmill to provide a safe and accessible environment for Megan to exercise independently.
Our team consists of three senior engineering students attending Cal Poly: Daniel Byrne (ME), Michael Peck (ME), and Eddie Ruano (CPE). The different knowledge bases of our team assisted in producing a versatile and robust design. This final design report documents the full design process for this project, from start to finish. In this report, our team will highlight the many steps we took to produce our final detailed design, as well as the process of turning this design into a fully functional product.
URL: https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/mesp/379