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Capstone Project Research Paper

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Capstone Project Reflection
For my capstone project I worked with Katie and Emma. Our goal was to make a contraption to help a dog from the Humane Society named Ceiley. Ceiley is a puppy that is going to have some, or all, of its front legs amputated in the future. We decided to first make a walker in which the dog could use if she ended up using a prosthetic leg. The walker was not made for everyday use. It’s purpose is only to teach Ceiley how to walk on her own using a prosthetic. The walker had a frame made of pvc pipe and we used office chair wheels so that the walker could move in all directions. Furthermore, there is a padded fabric piece that runs across the frame and is attached with velcro. The velcro allows the walker to be adjustable …show more content…

It is very difficult to produce a product for a dog that is still growing. We conquered this issue by making every component of the designs adjustable. For the wheelchair we were able to do this by making each length two pieces of pipe. The pieces of pipe have multiple holes cut on one end and they are attached in the middle by a wood black and two screws. For instance, to make the wheelchair longer you would place the screw through the holes closest to the outside of the pipe. To make the wheelchair shorter the screws would be placed on the screws on the pipes towards the middle of the pipes. Our first unexpected difficulty we faced during our capstone project was with the wheels of the walker. We didn’t really know what to expect with the wheels once we got them off of the office chair so we had to brainstorm ways to attach them after we already acquired them. This was probably the easiest problem to overcome during this project. Later, we faced a problem making the wheelchair because we couldn’t figure out how to connect the harness to the copper frame. We overcame this problem by taking some of the extra rubber tubing we had and connecting that to the harness through a metal ring and attaching it to the frame by putting a screw through it. Similarly, we had difficulty figuring out the best way to out the pieces of the frame together. We decided to buy a SharkBite T to …show more content…

Moreover, I think the goal of the project was to make us really apply ourselves. There was no easy way out of this project and you really had to commit to what you were doing. If you changed your project part of the way through it would make it very hard to finish on time. Overall, I am very happy with how this project went. Our group was quite on task and we were able to be very productive most days. We had very little free time or times when there was just nothing else we could do that day, though those times did occur. I am very proud of how the wheelchair turned out. If Ceiley does end up with a prosthetic I think our walker will actually be a useful tool in her rehabilitation. On the other hand, I am not as proud of the wheelchair. It didn’t turn out the way I was hoping it to. The problem with the SharkBite Ts caused us to use a less than professional supply, duct tape. Even with the use of duct tape I am not sure how practical the wheelchair is for use by Ceiley. That aside, I really enjoyed this project. It is impressive what students our age can create when we our given the time and a little

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