The overall goal of the RaProErgo (Rapid Prototyping in the field of occupational therapy) project, which is funded by the regional government of Upper Austria, is to simplify the manufacturing process of orthoses for persons with reduced mobility. A concept based on innovative and generative manufacturing technics (3d printers) will be developed and evaluated. The concept will be evaluated on the demonstrative example of a mouth-stick.
Mouth-sticks help people with serious motor disabilities to perform lots of tasks in their daily lives. For instance they can work on a PC, control tablet computerss or turning over pages while reading.
To achieve adjustability of the most important parameters (e.g. form and weight of the mouth-piece) to once fit specific users’ needs the following points will be addressed in the project:
- Analysis and specification of material properties
- Design and implementation of a web-based user interface to parametrise the main properties of the mouth-piece
- Participatory Design Process by including concerned persons into the development process
Project Partners
- Institute of Polymer Product Engineering, JKU Linz
- Kompetenznetzwerk KI-I
- Institut für Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung, Johannes Kepler Universität Linz
- Bandagist Heindl GmbH
- EVO-tech GmbH