CRI Day 6

Update: we will be working on both the issue of the fixed seat and the issue of transfer from wheelchair to shell.
Amy was still sick today and I didn't feel comfortable starting a new project regarding transfer without talking to her, so I worked on the erg chair project that we decided on when we visited CRI last week.
Basically, the rowers at CRI have this set-up for their ergs:

But they found that this sets the seat too high up for rowers to get the best draw angle--the height makes it so that they have to use a completely different set of muscles. The seat needed to be lower, which is why they had it upside down when we first visited them:

So the goal for today was to figure out how to adapt their existing hardware to be lower. CRI lent us a set of the connective parts of the erg and I started out the day by disconnecting the spacer 

from the connective plates, screws, and bolts. 

This is what I ended up with.

At this point, I was a little bit confused about how the connective pieces actually attached to the seat itself and thought that I would have to build a spacer between the connective plate and the seat to allow room for the bolts. 

I wasn't quite sure how to do this, however, so I decided to take some measurements and look more closely at pictures of the entire adaptive seat and connectors. I saw that the seat connects to the connective plate by having bolts or screws go through another plate.

So I figured that we will be able to just put the bolts through both plates, an idea that I will be testing when we go to CRI again on Friday.

Prototype #1

Things we should think about next (erg chair):

• Does this design function correctly and solve the height problem?
• Using this design, how quickly can an erg be changed from sliding to fixed?
• How can this transformation process be speeded up?
• Is there a different way of connecting the seat to the erg that does not include screw clamps, which take a relatively long time to screw in? Is this new way sufficiently strong to hold the seat securely onto the erg while taking the abuse of the rowers rowing?

Things to ask rowers/coaches at CRI:

• Have them try to set it up. - see if they can figure it out, if they use it in an unexpected way, etc. - VIDEO them (do a time study)
• Do you have any initial impressions or ideas about the prototype?
• What works well about this device?
• What does not work well about this device?
• For transfer project: What type of shells do you use? (so we can find out what they are made of, their strengths, etc.)

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