PRE2017 1 Groep3

Members of group 3
Karlijn van Rijen	0956798
Gijs Derks	0940505
Tjacco Koskamp	0905569
Luka Smeets	0934530
Jeroen Hagman	0917201

Introduction

The technology of robotics is an unavoidable rapidly evolving technology which could bring lots of improvements for the modern world as we know it nowadays. The challenge is however to invest in the kind of robotics that will make its investments worthwhile instead of investing in a research that will never be able to pay its investments back. In this report we are going to investigate into a robotics technology that we think is worthwhile looking into. In this chapter it will be explained what the societal issue is that we want to tackle, what we want to achieve for this issue and how we plan on achieving this.

Problem Definition

When you travel by train on a regular basis you might have noticed that when people in a wheelchair need to exit or entry the train it goes rather slow. Before they can get on or off the train the train personnel is needed first to get some sort of ramp to make the disabled people able to board or deboard the train. When someone in a wheelchair is on board or wants to go on board of the train the train might even be delayed because of this. As we know trains in the Netherlands tend to be too late every time and therefore every obstacle that is getting in the way of letting them ride on time, should be taken care of. The wheelchair problem is definetely one of them. Imagine you are in a wheelchair and want to board the train. First you have to look for someone of the staff to ask if they can help you board the train. Someone of the staff will then get the ramp and help you board the train when it has arrived. When you have reached your destination and you want to exit the train again someone of the staff at the trainstation has to get the ramp and help you deboard the train. As you can see it is a lot more difficult for people with a handicap to be able to easily travel by train. Every time they want to travel by train they are dependent of other people. The feeling of constantly being dependent on others is for most people the worst part of living with a handicap. Because of this dependency the threshold for these people to travel by train is much higher. When they stop using the train it might have an impact on their social being which might cause loneliness and even depression. We as group 3 want to improve the service at trainstations for disabled people by using the technology of robotics.

Objective

As already mentioned in the problem definition it is our goal to improve the assistance for disabled people at train stations. In order to achieve this goal we need to specify what is actually meant by improve. To see what the best eventual goal would be the wishes of the users need to be considered. The primary users are of course the disabled people, however the indirect user, which is the train staff, also has their own wishes. To be able to know what the users want their opinion is needed, which will be discussed under the USE chapter. Here our view of the ideal solution will be explained. As explained before the dependency on others is one of the main problems and therefore it would be best if everyone could board the train all by their self without the help of any staff. Another problem was the time it takes to board the train and therefore we want a solution that is as fast as possible but of course also entirely safe to use. Another important part are the manufacturing costs, which of course are preferred to be low. Also the product should be easy to use and not wear off too quickly since reparation costs will be high on a robotic system.

Approach

The approach for the project will be discussed in this section. First of all the users wishes should be the main design criteria. To find out what the wishes of the users are there 2 questionnaires will be made, one for the disabled people and one for the train staff. The results of these questionnaires will be used for a thematic analysis. From the conceptual designs the one that fits the wishes of the users best and is the best solution according to the other design criteria will be chosen. After the best conceptual design is chosen a literature research will be executed about the options of the design. When the literature research is completed a prototype will be designed which will represent the final solution of the project. With the prototype it can be seen what things of the design should be adapted to improve the design. To make sure that the project will be finished in time milestones have been made which show what we want to finish in every week from now on. The list of milestones can be seen in the planning.

Project planning Gantt chart