The Puzzle of Getting up From a Seat
Format
SOECS Senior Project Demonstration
Faculty Mentor Name
Shelly Gulati
Faculty Mentor Department
Bioengineering
Additional Faculty Mentor Name
Simon Tang
Abstract/Artist Statement
Millions of people in the United States have difficulty rising from a chair. To address this issue various companies have developed seat assists and lifting cushions to help people transition from a seated position to a standing position and vice versa. Current assist devices are only capable of moving the user in one plane of motion - up and down. Attaching a swiveling base will provide an axis of rotation so the user can move to the right or left while seated. No seat assist or lifting cushion on the market has this feature. We have re-engineered the current design of the UpEasy Seat Assist, a portable lifting cushion. By adding a swiveling base, our assist device will have an additional axis of rotation for a larger range of motion. The overall design of the seat was reshaped to be smaller and circular so that it can be used in a larger variety of chairs. A biomechanical analysis of the joints during the interval from sitting to standing was also carried out. It was determined that the reaction forces experienced by the hip, knee, and ankle joints were lessened when the seat assist was used. The rise times from a seated position to a standing position will be measured with and without the seat on a test group to determine the advantage of using the seat assist device and a questionnaire will be distributed to all participants to assess the device’s ease of use.
Location
School of Engineering & Computer Science
Start Date
28-4-2012 2:00 PM
End Date
28-4-2012 3:30 PM
The Puzzle of Getting up From a Seat
School of Engineering & Computer Science
Millions of people in the United States have difficulty rising from a chair. To address this issue various companies have developed seat assists and lifting cushions to help people transition from a seated position to a standing position and vice versa. Current assist devices are only capable of moving the user in one plane of motion - up and down. Attaching a swiveling base will provide an axis of rotation so the user can move to the right or left while seated. No seat assist or lifting cushion on the market has this feature. We have re-engineered the current design of the UpEasy Seat Assist, a portable lifting cushion. By adding a swiveling base, our assist device will have an additional axis of rotation for a larger range of motion. The overall design of the seat was reshaped to be smaller and circular so that it can be used in a larger variety of chairs. A biomechanical analysis of the joints during the interval from sitting to standing was also carried out. It was determined that the reaction forces experienced by the hip, knee, and ankle joints were lessened when the seat assist was used. The rise times from a seated position to a standing position will be measured with and without the seat on a test group to determine the advantage of using the seat assist device and a questionnaire will be distributed to all participants to assess the device’s ease of use.