The Legacy’s residents feel unstable entering and exiting company vehicles, one of which is their Toyota Sienna van. The Legacy asked for a stable handle which would allow residents to pull themselves into and out of the van. The team from the Fall 2019 semester has met with the partner once on September 28th, where they were introduced to the residents and drivers. Research thus far has included measuring the dimensions of the vehicles and performing CAD simulations.
The overall goal for this project is to build a comfortable and stable handle for residents to board the company van. The handle will be designed to manage a minimum weight of 175 lbs, drastically minimize wobble that common door handles have, and weigh less than 3 lbs. The semester goal is to build a functional prototype of the handle for the van. First, several van handle ideas were created. Next, these three ideas will be made in CAD and put through simulations to create the best design that meets our aforementioned criteria, and then identify the appropriate material(s) to use. The remaining ideas will then be created from wood and other materials and presented to The Legacy partner for feedback. Once feedback is gathered we will move forward with purchasing material(s) to make a functional prototype, and eventually construct the aforementioned prototype.