Engineering Documentation
November 7th, Tuesday, 2023
Since last week, we've formed the cat adaptive device team and tried to reach out clients. Prof. Ian provided us the contact of a professor who currently works at a School of Veterinary Medicine.
Interactive index
Define Customer Profile Contact & schedule 1st meeting Open Source Preparation First Meeting Design Thinking Methodology 1 Design Thinking Methodology 2 Problems & potential solutions
Our customers are cats who have trouble with their daily activities such as eating and movements like walking and jumping. We may find them in vets. Prof. Ian also provided us the contact of a professor who's currently working at a School of Veterinary Medicine. She's able to find us some cats incapable of daily activities and give us some constructive suggestions.
We were given the email address of the vet professor. We collectively gathered some questions regarding potential cat clients:
- What potential common problems can be solved through 3D printing?
- Are any of the solutions we have available so far things that we'll be able to implement?
- What are the daily activities of the cats, especially if we are going to deal with leg-disabled cats? Do they jump or scuttle a lot? If we are going to work with cats who have megaesophagus or eating issues, what are the postures of the cats when they eat? Does it vary depending on the client?
- Can you discuss the difficulty in working with cats? They tend to be very independent and may not become comfortable quickly with an assistive device. We have found that making the device as light as possible helps, and we can run through multiple prototypes. Do you have any other thoughts?
We then composed an email to schedule our first meeting. The professor promptly replied to us and was willing to help.
We have two directions in our project. The first involves creating assistive prostheses for cats, while the second focuses on developing assistive feeding devices for cats suffering from megaesophagus. To gather ideas and references, we conducted searches on Thingiverse and Thang3D for existing 3D-printed works. I printed a cat feeder, while my partner opted to create a cat prosthesis. As a result, we now have some prototypes ready for our upcoming meeting with the veterinary professor. Overall, my print was successful except the shaft. Unfortunately, the printer stopped extruding PLA halfway through, likely due to a blocked nozzle.
Our first meeting with the professor was quite frustrtaing, I would say. The Professor addressed that currently the idea of a 3D printed prosthesis for cats is not practical in the sense that it does not support the cat activities which involves drastic movement such as jumping. Furthermore, it's challenging to adjust the dimensions of such a prosthesis to ensure a proper fit for a specific cat. The feeder prototype was also rejected. It might work fine for normal cats but not the ones with megaesophagus. Usually, the solution for megaesophagus is a Bailey chair, which is a chair designed to allow cats to eat with their heads at a specific angle.
After the first meeting, We organized two 2 Design Thinking Methodologies. The first one is Needs Statement. In Needs Statement, we should frame our activity in this way: [Our user] needs a way to [addresses this need] so that they [benefit in this way.] it's clear that [Our user] is the [Cat owners] in our case.
I and Penny then listed 5 needs and their corresponding benefits: 1. [Need]place cats into carrier easily -> [benefit]take their cats to the vet without too much difficulty
2. [Need]support their pets' leg -> [benefit]move normally and be able to jump
3. [Need]have pets remain standing upward -> [benefit]feed their pets with megaesophagus
4. [Need]inject insulin into pets' bodeis -> [benefit]not have trouble of avoiding giving shots
5. [Need]provide pets comfort when stting upright -> [benefit]feed their pets without excessive difficulty
We also grouped similar needs and benefits for future use.
The second methodology is Empathy Map, in which we should put us in the shoes of cats and consider their feelings and needs.
Says: Meow :)
Thinks: Food, walking, pouncing, movement, sleep, comfort, affection, play, enrichment.
Does: struggle to move, struggle to eat, fight back when uncomfort (i.e: being put in carrier), struggle to take medication, folding their paws under their bodies
Feels: uncomfortable, hungry, fatiqued, pain, excitement
With assistance of the vet professor, we were able to identify several common issues of pet cats:
1. cats usually struggle a lot with insulin injection.
2. cats usually are not willing to swallow the oral pills
3. Cat owners usually have a hard time to put them into carriers
4. Cats struggle with general operation of syringe.
5. (not common but good for publication if we can figure out a solution) feeding cats who have megaesophagus disease. The vet professor gave us some constructive ideas corresponding to each of these problem: 1. Insulin administration pen. 2. An assistive device to help with oral pill administration. 3. An assistive device to help folks get cats into carriers. 4. An assistive device to help with general operation of a syringe. 5. Cat Bailey chair, which is a chair designed to allow cats to eat with their heads at a specific angle.