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[Bleakney] I'm Adam Bleakney.
There are few different projects which I'm involved in, looking at different mobility
devices for individuals that have mobility impairments, primarily wheelchair users.
[McDonagh] We have a very rich history on campus of wheelchairs. And I did look up the
last traditional wheelchair patent. And it was from 1864 or so. And it's not really changed.
[Bleakney] I wanted to liberate the hands from having to push wheels in order to be
able to do a lot of other things and have a lot of other experiences that just aren't
convenient or completely inaccessible for daily wheelchair users.
We want to create something that's hands-free, something that's lightweight,
and something has a small footprint.
[McDonagh] What happened with this project, is that Adam,
the voice of the user, initiated it and brought us on as collaborators with him.
[Hsiao-Wecksler] One of the great things that I love about this team is
that we're doing design WITH people with disabilities, instead of just
design FOR people with disabilities.
So our team encompasses individuals with disabilities.
[McDonagh] Not only is it fully embracing all elements of campus, from north to south,
Engineering to Industrial Design, but disability is literally at the heart of the project.
[Bleakney] I'd watch people come by on Segways and these hoverboards
and I thought, " Why can't we do this?
Why can't I sit on a self-balancing device and move in that way?" --
which would free my hands from having to push the wheels, which, oftentimes,
you just can't do things, because your hands are occupied with pushing.
[Hsiao-Wecksler] So they originally contacted me asking if I could put a chair on top of a Segway.
And I was like, well, that's great. However, maybe we could do something different.
[McDonagh] Segway does take some time to get used to it. And you can easily fall off a Segway.
[Hsiao-Wecksler] And, at that time, the new 'Star Wars' movie had just come out,
where there's this ball robot, BB-8.
(Poe Dameron: Don't wait for me! Jump in and fire her up!)
Additionally, my kids had been watching the Nickelodeon show 'Avatar: The Last Airbender,'
where that character also rides on a ball of air.
I was like, "Couldn't we possibly make this device that we were riding on a ball?"
[Bleakney] Actually I made one drawing of a chair just sitting on top of BB-8,
just because... just to get, just to get that idea.
[Hsiao-Wecksler] One of our other team members at the time, Tim Bretl, who's a professor in
Aerospace Engineering, he said, "I know of an existing ball robot, called the ballbot,
that is being developed out at Carnegie Mellon University by Professor Ralph Hollis.
And that technology actually exists."
So that's how we decided, Wow! We would try to put a chair on a ballbot.
[McDonagh] If you've had experience of using a wheelchair, it's forward... it's back...
I mean... there's a lot of navigation.
And we wanted a chair that was organic.
So you can dance. You can move. It can... it moves with your body.
And, that way, the technology takes second place. It's the person first.
[Bleakney] There are ways that you can move on a ball, that you just can't move on wheels...
just a way of moving in a little more elegant, more organic manner.
[Hsiao-Wecksler] So, our prototype, we have the ball is our spherical wheel. And it's driven,
in this case, by three motors that are then driven by omni wheels.
And this allows us to have the omnidirectional motion.
So, we actually spent quite a long time thinking about the ball
and the construction of the ball...
what the materials would be... what would it be covered with.
So, after a VERY long time, we finally actually are ending up with a bowling ball.
We're using a lightweight bowling ball and we're 3D printing patches of TPU,
or plastic, and attaching them, like a soccer ball pattern, on the outside of that bowling ball.
By adding on these 3D printed patches, we get a little bit of added friction.
Because we don't want it super slippy, like a normal bowling ball would be.
[Bleakney] A really, a great part of it was that I was able to move laterally. Right?
So, I can move lateral left, lateral right.
Man! I haven't done that since I had my spinal cord injury,
because you just can't do that in a four-wheel chair.
It's not... it's impossible.
So then, to do that with a ballbot, it's amazing! It was amazing!
Every time I had to jump back into my everyday chair, it was... uh, it was a sad day. (laughs)
[McDonagh] It really shows what happens when you bring engineering, research design, and an
assistive technology to life -- where function and the emotional needs of users are so intertwined.
[Hsiao-Wecksler] The other really great thing was, we were shooting a commercial for
the University and the Big Ten Network.
And we had Adam walking, hand-in-hand, with his wife, Laura.
And it was the first time that he said he's able to actually walk with her,
and move with her, while holding her hand.
And that was an amazing experience.
[Bleakney] It's striking and powerful that I can sit in something and use something that
really started out as just a little sketch that I drew on a piece of scrap paper.
I mean, that's, that's where it started. I just... I sketched it out and I said,
this would be useful. I think this is a good idea. And let's figure out how to make it.
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