This project explores the potential of cooperative robots to increase mobility for elderly patients in home healthcare, focusing on the development of the tensegrity chair lift. Through user and expert interviews, key needs such as independence and social connection were identified, leading to the refinement and selection of concepts for prototypes. Ultimately, the tensegrity chair lift emerged as the finalized product due to its positive feedback and viability, highlighting a promising market for enhancing the quality of life for seniors.

1. Seth McFarland, Stanley Liu, Andrew Kim
John Wilcox, Josh Stroud

2. Mission Statement
Increase elderly patients’ mobility using robotic partners.
Abstract
This project studies the potential uses of next-generation cooperative robots in home healthcare with an emphasis on the elderly market. We partnered with the NASA Ames Research Center,
Berkeley Institute of Design, and Ashby Village (AV), a senior village community, to explore this space.
Needs identified by interviews are addressed in two prototypes. We introduce the Tensegrity Chair Lift,
a product which targets a common problem for senior citizens. We discuss the business case and social,
economic, and environmental concerns for the proposed product.
Customer and User Needs
USER AND EXPERT INTERVIEWS (APPENDIX A)
User interviews included Chris Fin, a 42-year old quadriplegic; Joan, a 73-year old with Stage-4
cancer at Ashby Village; Audrey, a UC Berkeley student with a specific strain of anemia; Kie, a
quadriplegic UC Berkeley student; and Shirley, a widow living at home. We focused on identifying their
specific needs and issues in the medical products they currently used.
Expert interviews gave us the market stakeholders’ perspective on current products and needs
that need to be fulfilled in the current market. These interviews included an architect, an interior
designer, and a volunteer from the Ashby Village senior community. We worked closely with the staff
at AV to interview members of their network of seniors and volunteers. We also bounced ideas off our
mentor in the Berkeley Institute of Design, and visited the NASA Ames Research Center to learn more
about the Tensegrity robotics technology. Finally, we interviewed other stakeholders, including a
doctor, the director of the Disabled Students Program at Cal, and several staff at a medical supply
store.
ANALYSIS: OBSERVATIONS, INSIGHT, AND FEEDBACK
The team put together an initial draft of our user needs, gathered from 12 interviews with both
senior citizens, people with disabilities, and experts in design and architecture. Upon feedback from a
Stanford professor, however, we realized that our needs were too broad. We decided instead to focus
on two specific needs and a specific user group, the elderly, in our prototyping process.
From analysis of our interviews, we ultimately chose Independence and Social Connection as the
most important needs. Both needs showed up again and again in both interviews and market research
of elderly users. We ultimately chose Independence as our top need. Mobility and Social Connection
were delegated to primary needs, one level down in our hierarchy. For a more in depth analysis and
hierarchy of user, refer to Appendix B. We made these decisions late in the semester, so our more broad
5 needs guided us through the concept generation and selection phases.
Concept Generation (Appendix C)
We used an iterative design process to generate concepts which addressed our user needs
through two rounds of ideation and refinement. Each cycle consisted of an initial brainstorm, concept
voting, concept consolidation, and user feedback.
PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION
The team split potential users of Tensegrity applications to home healthcare two user groups:
people with physical disabilities and elderly citizens. Both of these user groups wanted more

3. independence and safety while allowing for customization to their specific needs and disabilities. With
our first brainstorm, we tried to target both groups.
INITIAL BRAINSTORM (CONCEPT GENERATION)
In our initial brainstorm, we developed over 50 concepts which addressed many of our broad user
needs. A sampling of our initial concepts:

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Seeing eye vest
Robotic Nurse
Snake form-factor
Exoskeleton


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Muscle stretcher
Device in bed
Tensegrity wallet


Suspension
wheelchair
Social buddy robot
Although we did not use of all of these concepts, they drove our second round of ideation. We
consolidated these concepts into broad themes of form and function, which served as jumping off
points for our second concept generation brainstorm.
REFINED BRAINSTORM (CONCEPT GENERATION)
In our second series of brainstorms, we generated concepts specifically for elderly home
healthcare, targeting our needs at the time. We generated another 50 concepts, bringing our total to
100 concepts. We then voted for our favorite concepts, and compiled a list of our top 12 concepts:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Rehab device
Social Ball
Medicinal Dispenser
Power Lifter
Ramp
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Assistive Visor
Empathetic Snake
Chair Assist
Biofeedback Vest
Walker
11. Customizable Ball
12. Back Brace
Concept Selection
CONCEPT SCREENING MATRIX (APPENDIX D)
The team used a selection matrix to compare various tensegrity concept categories. As a
benchmark, we used the industry standard for care: a hired caregiver. We screened based on our core
user needs at the time, as well as alignment with team goals and technical feasibility. The results of this
screening process led us to focus on several areas for concept scoring. The concepts which met the
most success met at least four of our five core needs at the time, as well as cost-effectiveness and
prototype viability.
CONCEPT SCORING (APPENDIX E)
We used a concept scoring matrix (Appendix E) to decide on concepts to prototype. We scored
the top concepts based on the same criteria from our screening matrix, and weighted the criteria based
on importance. We then assigned numerical scores to each concept in each category. From this scoring
matrix, the “Social Ball” and “Chair Assist” concepts were clear winners, and continued to the prototype
phase. Both offered clear advantages in prototype viability, ease of use, and cost. We also prototyped
the third-highest scoring concept, the “Assistive Visor,” for feedback at the Midterm Tradeshow.

4. Prototyping, Final Product, and User Feedback
EXOSKELETON TENSEGRITY PROTOTYPE (APPENDIX F)
To better understand Tensegrity, we rapid prototyped the “Exoskeleton Tensegrity” concept.
We used a 3D printer to manufacture an ABS plastic tensegrity finger. This prototype helped us
understand how difficult it is to construct a balanced tensegrity structure. However, the Tensegrity
Exoskeleton didn’t directly fit with our user needs, so we scrapped it.
TENSEGRITY SOCIAL BALL (APPENDIX G)
A second prototype we developed was the “Tensegrity Social Ball” (video). The ball is selfactuated and interacts with users in the home. The ball would provide timely medication reminders and
monitor their health while providing a friendly conversation. We wanted to explore the soft and
interactive nature of Tensegrity technology, but, seniors had a difficult
time understanding the product in interviews. They didn’t express
much interest once they seemed to understand the concept. Seniors
were not sold on the idea of social interactions with a robot.
Ultimately, we decided to focus on our final prototype and product:
the Tensegrity Chair Lift.
TENSEGRITY CHAIR LIFT (APPENDIX H)
Our final product is the Tensegrity Chair Lift. We decided to
choose the Tensegrity Chair Lift (Fig 1) as our final product because of
both positive feedback from user interviews and its viability as a future
product. Our first “feels-like” version of the prototype demonstrated
the lifting mechanism by hinging two pieces of plywood together and
attaching rope on the back of the top plywood piece to lift the seat.
We further developed the tensegrity chair prototype by
covering it with fabric. This addition improved the aesthetics, enabling
users to interact with the chair without being distracted by its nontensegrity design. We developed a “looks-like” prototype in CAD,
which we included in Appendix H.
FIGURE 1: INTRODUCING THE TENSEGRITY
CHAIR LIFT
PROTOTYPE USER FEEDBACK (SEE PROTOTYPE APPENDICES F-H)
After developing our initial product prototypes, we met with
seniors and experts to demonstrate our ideas and receive feedback.
●
Shirley, an elderly woman, was very interested in the potential of new technology to help
seniors sit and stand up from their chairs, in the form of our Tensegrity Chair Lift. She
immediately thought of a friend who would use the product, but called it ugly and an eyesore.
●
Joan, another elderly woman living at home, thought the Tensegrity Chair Lift could be very
useful if it was light enough to be carried around and used on chairs and benches when seniors
are out of their house (for example: stadiums, parks, concerts).
●
Joan’s husband, who has severe dementia, was injured because he didn’t realize he had
activated the motorized lifting chair in which he was sitting. End result: he fell, and they
disconnected the motor immediately.

5. ●
Cheryl, an architect for Ashby Village, disliked our social ball prototype, because she couldn’t
understand what problem it solved. She also mentioned the ball was a major tripping hazard for
someone with poor vision and reflexes.
Economic Analysis & Business Plan (Appendix I)
BENCHMARKING
Price of comparable items:
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Wheelchair $250 and up. [1]
UpLift Seats $100 and up. [2]
Caregiver $18 and up per hour. [3]
$26,000 per year for service four hours per day.
US nursing home $76,680 per year. [4]
MARKET SIZE
In 2008 there were 38,690,169 seniors in the US, which is 12.7% of the population [5] (Fig 2).
Assuming 20% of the elderly would have a use for our product, maximum market size is approximately
7.5 million users. If we advertise to potential customers through AARP, and other senior organizations,
which have a combined membership approaching 38 million, we estimate we could reach 50% of our
potential user base. Of the customers who see advertising, 3% are estimated to purchase the product
within a 3-year time span. This gives us about 100,000 units sold over three years. Annualized, the sales
are $10 million a year if the unit is priced at $300, strong sales for a small company. With an
approximate manufacture cost of $85 per unit, expenditures would be $2.8 million annually on
hardware. The company could have 60 employees at an average overhead of $80,000 per employee per
year, and still turn $2.4 million in profits annually. Although these numbers are very optimistic, they
showcase the large market and potential profit margins in selling to American senior citizens.
FIGURE 2: PROJECTED US
ELDERLY POPULATION FOR
NEXT 50 YEARS

6. Triple Bottom Line Analysis (Appendix I)
Our triple bottom line addresses our users and their needs, the environment, and provides us with a
sustainable business model. Check out the summary diagram below:
Lessons Learned (Appendix J)
GENERAL THOUGHTS
Our challenges this semester are best summed up by this quote from playwright John
Galsworthy: “Idealism increases in direct proportion to one's distance from the problem.” As we got
closer to the problem through user interviews, we realized the scale and difficulty of the elderly
healthcare issue facing the US. Our concepts subsequently became less abstract and idealistic, and
more concrete. We were surprised at how well Ashby Village was addressing this problem, and at the
strengths of a community over a product or service.
We also learned about the need to “dive deep.” We continually had a problem with the initial
broad and abstract specifications of our project, and consequently had trouble creating concrete needs
and concepts. As we received feedback about this issue, we adjusted by focusing on specific needs,
problems, and concept areas. Our project was a “solution in search of a problem.”
The team had a lot of trouble understanding what exactly Tensegrity was, and where it was
useful. Only when we visited the NASA Ames Research Center, and met with the Tensegrity Robotics
researchers there, did we began to understand the strengths of Tensegrity robots. Unfortunately, this
happened in week 6 of the semester. The lesson here was to thoroughly research and understand a new
technology before you try to brainstorm concepts for it.
RECOMMENDATIONS
● This project was difficult to communicate, both as we struggled to understand the technology
and explain it to users. The NASA team needs to come up with clear and compelling prototypes
to successfully communicate the concept, and explore possible “experience demonstrations.”
●
Through our research, we became convinced that Tensegrity robotics have the potential to
make a powerful impact in improving quality of life for elderly users in the home.

7. Works Cited
[1] Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=4075961
[2] Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dhpc&field-keywords=uplift%20seat
[3] Caregiverlist.com
http://www.caregiverlist.com/Rates.aspx
[4] Payingforseniorcare.com
http://www.payingforseniorcare.com/longtermcare/statistics.html
[5] CIA World Factbook
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/index.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medicare_(United_States)#Costs_and_funding_challenges
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medicaid#Budget

8. Appendices
Appendix A: User and Expert Interviews
2.12.13
Interview with a UC Berkeley Bio-Engineering Major
About the Interviewee:




UC Berkeley Bio-Engineering (4th-Year Undergraduate)
Minoring in Mechanical Engineering
Does research on mechanics of hip and shoulder implants with Professor Lisa Pruitt, UC Berkeley
Interned with surgeon for one summer and observed many surgeries
Lessons Learned from Interview:
 Interview the expert in context. (as described in the video) An interview about a hospital is
much harder in the person’s house than at the hospital where they might have been reminded of
important product functionalities necessary in their job.
 Don’t take notes while interviewing. Instead record the interview and take notes soon afterwards
when listening to the tape recording. This will allow the conversation to flow more naturally.
 Have far more prepared questions than necessary, but don’t feel compelled to use them all.
By taking more questions than necessary into the interview the interviewer can allow the
conversation to take any direction it needs to, instead of forcing the expert to answer questions
that might be less important than other (possibly unexpected) things the expert wants to discuss.
 Give the subject of the interview time to prepare. By giving the interview subject a description
of the project in advance, they might have thoughts prepared for the interviewer. Also, this means
when they are going about their job for the few days prior to the interview they are thinking about
their job in context of what you are going to ask.
User Needs:

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








Quickly and easily calibrated or tested to confirm safe operation before use
Respond to oral commands
The robot is able to be sterilized
Lost Cost system
Easily repaired or reused
Materials - hypo-allergenic, heat-resistant for autoclave,
Small size - hospitals have limited space
Battery powered so there are no cords to trip over
Uniform treatment across multiple patients
Keeps records of treatments for each patient
Has multiple levels of redundancy for safety

9.  Can confirm the identity of the patient to ensure the proper person is treated
Transcript:
What are the potential applications of robotics technology?
Object retrieval, in small spaces - say under a bed. A patient may drop something and the robot might
retrieve it from under the bed. A tensegrity robot might roll1 to move under small spaces like under the
bed in this example. (Interviewee cites NASA example)
Another possible use: Robot has a timer and gives the proper doses of medication at the proper time.
Walk me through the procedure to use a robot in an operating room.
1. The robot would have to be prepared or sterilized.
2. The nurse would have to test the robot was functional and operating safely before the patient or
doctor entered
3. The robot would respond to doctor’s voice commands
4. The doctor tells the robot which surgery is being performed and what instruments are in use
5. The robot would be put through an autoclave when the procedure is finished
Other important details:
-The robot must be battery powered so there are no cords to trip over.
- The robot must respond to oral commands because the surgons hand
- The entire robot must be able to fit into the autoclave for sanitation.
- Doctors want a robotic scrub nurse who can keep track of his/her tools and hand him/her the proper
instrument at the right time.
What do you like about existing products?
- Intiutive Surgical’s Da Vinci Robot allows for very small controlled movements can be made using
robotics in surgery. This robot goes inside small spaces inside the human body where a surgeon’s hand
would not fit.
- Robotics systems in healthcare allows for more uniform treatment across multiple patients. This allows
for better treatment of all patients. Also, medical studies that use robotics have better control groups and
fewer variables in care that might unintentionally affect results.
What are the disadvantages of current robotics in medicine?
-Most robotics products are very large and only used in the operating room. The technology has
applications outside the operating room, but it isn’t being developed further.
What issues do you consider when purchasing a robot for healthcare use?
- Can it be sterilized?
- Cost

10. - Materials - allergies, heat-resistant materials,
- Size - hospitals have limited space
Citation:
1
http://ti.arc.nasa.gov/tech/asr/intelligent-robotics/tensegrity/superballbot/

11. 2.22.12
Rebecca suffers from Scoliosis Pre-med, 2nd year student
Statement
Need
“doctors didn’t care about my pain”
Product should be empathetic
“nurses were late with my medication”
Product must be able to complete time sensitive
tasks
“I cannot sit or stand for long periods, many chairs
are to uncomfortable”
Product must protect the patients weakened
regions.
“I plan my day around seating and walking
distances”
Product must provide user with equipment to
travel freely.
“I spent all day in the hospital bed watching TV”
Product must provide companionship
“my mother had to take care of me 24-7
Product must reduce the caretakers workload
“specialists changed and did not know what the
previous specialist had done”
Product must interface with and improve
communication between all users rather than add
complexity
“hospital checked up four times after surgery”
Product provides better monitoring that is remote
Reflection
Rebecca was my first interview for this project. I feel like although our interview had a decent
flow, if I could do it over I would have focused in more on some of the specific questions. Especially now
that we have focused on specific project goals I would like to interview her again and ask her more
about each concept in specific. Rebecca’s interview was difficult to get as much out of because her
greatest problem was the pain. She had some restrictions on her mobility, but other than that her
problem was essentially pain.
Having Josh know her enabled him to ask more specific questions after I had steered the
conversation in a specific direction but run out of questions. If Josh had led the interview, his
knowledge of her would have steered the conversation but instead it added more depth.
Interview Transcript
Partial Transcript of notes taken while doing the interview:
Q: What do you on a typical day?
Spends most of her time working -> Chemistry, physics

12. On weekends, I work, do something with her boyfriend or her close group of friends.
Wake up, shower, and take my meds. Has a handicapped parking permit and drives to class.
Q: Do you feel like any part of your routine is different than normal?
“I’m in constant pain, all the time.” Her life has been very altered by her crippling back pain. My routine
is different from everyone else.
Q: If you could have something to help you out, independent of cost or feasibility, what would you
want to be improved in your life. What would you do to make it better?
On a typical weekday morning, I don’t think there’s any outside influence that could really impact how I
feel. The majority of my issues can’t be helped at that point.
Q: What about in the rest of your days, is there anything you’d change? I know you spend most of
the day on campus, walking and standing is really tough right?
The only thing I can do indefinitely is lie down.
Q: Do you alternate between sitting and standing?
I try not to stand too long, I walk around campus but I don’t stand for an hour. Any time I go to the
library, I have to use a comfortable chair, so I plan my schedule around that. When I go home, I don’t sit
at a table; I lie in bed or stand up.
Q: You plan to have better places to sit on campus. What else do you have to plan around in your
day?
That’s a big one: what seating I have access to, where I’m going. In social situations, it’s even worse. It’s
more minor. When you’re in a position like mine, sitting in an uncomfortable chair for an hour may not
be the worst thing, but when you put that in combination with carrying a bag, backpack, it’s hard.
I have huge problem set books which are the only thing I can carry, I can drive them but it’s difficult and
an inconvenience, especially when I have to carry my computer as well. When I can, I plan my day
around dropping stuff off at my car.
In terms of school, it’s hard for me to sit down an extended period of time and take notes, because of
my back problems. So having a computer helps with that, I don’t have to that.
Q: You’ve gone through a couple surgeries. Have you had major surgery?
I have scoliosis, which we found when I was 8 years old. I wore braces for it, and when I was a senior in
high school, I had a spinal fusion surgery (May 2011). They cut open an incision 14 inches long in my
back; they placed rods on either sides of the curve, and put screws in my vertebrae to hold the curve of
my spine in place. The recovery was quite extensive; the surgery was 8 hours long
Q: What was your first memory?
My first memory was opening my eyes in the hospital room I was going to be next 8 days. I woke up in
excruciating pain -> screaming in pain. “Begging for pain killers.” I spent two months in a hospital bed in
my house, slowing gaining my mobility and freedom. I spent the whole summer recovering. She was 18
years old.

13. Q: What was care like at home?
Especially in the first couple weeks, constant care. I couldn’t have been left alone. Her mom needed to
take complete care of her; we didn’t want to hire a nurse who wouldn’t have done a good job. I couldn’t
shower by myself; I couldn’t dress myself or even get out of bed. Insane amounts of medications to
manage, prescriptions. Having someone there for me was incredibly lucky (my mom).
Q: How was having your mom take care of you?
My mom didn’t leave the house for three weeks. When she left, she left me with someone else.
Q: What interactions did you have with hospital staff after returning home?
A mix of nurses and specialists came to visit the house, to make sure she was doing the right exercises,
dress the wound, and recovering.
Q: Did the hospital track your recovery?
No updates, really. Obviously I followed up with my symptoms, and the hospital called for an
assessment of the quality of your stay.
Q: What other surgeries have you had?
I had four other surgeries, injections into my back, and a heart surgery. I’m having another major
surgery this summer.
Q: What were the surgeries like?
Bad anesthesia experience with heart surgery, I woke up in the surgery because they did the anesthesia
wrong. That was really scary, traumatic. I was very much affected by that procedure.
Q: What was a day like two weeks after the surgery?
Wake up at 9. My temperature was off, I would be really cool. I would let me mom know that I’m up; get
in the hospital bed with the help of my men. Take all my meds, because I would be in intense pain, a
cocktail of meds. She would make me breakfast. I would watch TV all day long, which was all I could do.
I would very, very slowly walk around the cul-de-sac, and that would be my exercise for the day. I would
tell her when I needed to go to the bathroom, and she would get me out of the bed. And then 930-10, I
would go back to bed; she would help me go up the stairs very slowly.
Q: What sort of emotional state were you in?
Depends, sometimes all you can think about the pain. Your life is marked, day by day, by pain, pills,
hospital bed, TV show; the next TV show would break up your day. Markers of my day, the next TV
show. When my ex-boyfriend came home, that would be a huge marker, when he came to visit. Or
when family would spend time with you, which was huge. Least amount of pain was a marker.
Meaningful.
Q: So loneliness was a big issue?
Oh yes: I’m the only one in the hospital bed, an invalid.

14. Q: Another surgery this summer, what do you wish could be different or better? Ideally.
In the hospital and the home, it was so much of a burden on my mother to do everything for me. I
would want to lift that burden off of her, which would be very meaningful. Because she could be there
for me, because she was doing so much for me, she was emotionally and physically drained. That would
be meaningful. Stuff like that.
Getting food, or putting a pillow under my knees, because I needed that. Giving me the right medicine
the first week, or even in the hospital. There was a problem: I had to get the correct doses on the
correct time, every time.
There was such an issue of not getting adequate medication on time, even if the nurse was coming in
and giving me a pill. It didn’t happen, nurses were switching shifts. You literally had to hunt the nurse
down.
Q: Did you have other frustrations?
The insensitivity of doctors. I had to get the dressing of my back. They put adhesive all over my back
and then the doctor came in, and without any concern for my pain, every time he touched my back I
was in a spasm of pain. He turned me over and ripped it off. I screamed out loud. Only some doctors,
some nurses. Everyone was very busy, things don’t get done on time, and things get lost in translation.
If you need to use the bathroom, they won’t be there.
There’s not good communication, when you see the physical therapist, what they did one day, the next
guy didn’t know about.
You’re in a different world from your family, you in a hospital bed and everyone is normal.

15. 2.23.13
Chris Finn’s Home Healthcare Interview Writeup
Introduction and Reflections
Chris Finn is a quadriplegic and the coach of the USA National Power Soccer Team, which he has led to
consecutive world championships. Power soccer is a
competitive team sport for people with disabilities who use
powered wheelchairs to play a specially-designed variant of
“Chris Finn caught the soccer
soccer, and continues to be a very important part of Chris’
life.
bug at an early age. Growing up
We met Chris through a contact at the Ed Roberts Campus,
a leading national institution dedicated to disability rights
and universal access. Chris has never let his disability hold
him back, instead describing it “more like a new challenge, I
have to work out and do things differently.” He was only
one year older than me, a senior in college, when he
suffered a freak accident which left me permanently
disabled. I
Two of the major themes from our hour-long interview with
him were mobility, and independence. Primary needs were
mobility, reliability/trust, independence, empathy, and 24hour care.
Independently taking care of himself was one important
need. Another secondary need was to remove some of the
burden from his caregivers and family, important to him to
that he could do some stuff on his own. Whether he wanted
to cook his own meals, get into the shower by himself, or
drive himself to a meeting, he often was unable to do this,
and this inability frustrated him.
in Wisconsin, Chris spent most
of his childhood and high school
years participating and playing
at a competitive level. But a
freak accident at 21, which left
him a quadriplegic, ended what
he thought would be any chance
to continue competing at the
sport he loved. With little
designs left in athletics, Chris
finished school and began
looking for a career. Little did he
know his life would come full
circle…”
–
http://thebadassproject.com/chrisfinn/

16. Statement
“I can’t get into the shower on my own, but I
hate having a caregiver help me, it’s
embarrassing.”
Needs
Product provides or enhances dignity to the
user.
“I’m always traveling and I can’t carry 150lbs of
equipment with me.”
Product is lightweight and easy to transport.
“I wish I could use my microwave to make my
own dinner, and take some of the burden off
my caregiver.”
Product helps user with everyday actions.
“The height of counters, tables, and other
furniture is never where I need them to be.”
Product needs to compensate for poorly
targeted design choices of home use spaces.
“Cooking and other housework is always a
problem for me, since everything is difficult to
access.”
Product allows user to perform chores and daily
activities.
“My dad fed me in the hospital, he pretended
the fork was a bumblebee and buzzed it into
my mouth. When I came off my ventilator, the
first thing I told him was “Dad, if you do that
again I’ll kill you!” (jokingly).
Product allows user to retain dignity.
“I found it really difficult to go from being an
invincible 20-year-old to losing all my
independence and mobility.”
Product provides a feeling of independence to
user.
“My attendants spend a lot of time to help me
stretch my muscles.”
Product assists existing caregivers.
“If my attendants were to abandon me or not
show up, I would be screwed!”
“Sometimes I get lonely since I’m not as
mobile, you can get people to come to you, but
you have to make the effort.”
Product does not break down, and provides a
sense of reliability.
Product eases communication with outside
world, and reduces outside loneliness.

17. CHRIS FIN INTERVIEW NOTES
Easy Pivot
Cons
-very heavy, has to be broken into 3 parts, 150lbs
Pros
-Helps him get in and out of bed
Chris wants something lighter that could collapse like a stroller, mobile, easier to use, still able to wheel
around. Possible solution could be a lighter weight metal or polymer or some other design all together.
A shower chair that you could wheel into the shower if there is only a tub in the hotel
Attach a bracket and slide a chair over to sit in the shower
And this was collapsible into a suitcase size
THINGS TO LOOK AT
Cost
Insurance (medicare medicad)
Department of vehicle that help to pay for things
MICROWAVE
He wants to be able to warm things up in the microwave himself and has his own design for this
purpose where he is able to reach into the microwave and take the “basket”
To have something hold a plate with a handle 6in high
-Needs to not burn his hand when picking up
He isn’t really capable of operating a stove so it is important to have a way to cook food
DISABILITY
Quadrapelegia
4th and 5th vertebrae injury from freak accident after following in bathroom 4th year in college ROTC 20
years ago
Got dizzy and fainted after falling
Mindset
-What’s next? What to do now? With complete lifestyle change
-Thinking you’re invincible partying sports and now you can’t move when mobility used to be
everything
-However he can still think I sometimes thinks he takes his current state for granted
He used to drive a van with modifications till it broke
-First few days he didn’t realize the extent of his injuries and then it finally hits him and say well that
sucks and oh shit
-It was more like a new challenge and has to work out and do things differently and goes out ot see how
much he can do
-Went form what can I do? Not what can’t I do
-At firs the couldn’t move his arms at all and there was a lot of therapy the first 6 months and learning
to sit up
TYPICAL DAY WALKTHROUGH

18. -Personal care attendant come in wash up medication, bathroom, stretching, get dressed, getting out
of bed with transfer device
-Get in chair, have something to eat (breakfast), brush my teeth, shaving set his computer up with voice
activation to type, track ball instead of a mouse on computer,
-Starting a business for doing motivational speaking
-Doing a lot of writing to sell those
-Develop a personal life coaching program
FUSTRATIONS IN DAILY ROUTINE
-When voice activation says the wrong words, And it takes so long to correct it
-Transportation is really expensive to fix with the modified vehicles. Wants to drive.
-The height of things like counters and tables. Be able to get under things. Can’t fit under tables since
he -is kind of a taller guy. Do things like cook and get up to the sink.
-Access to things in general. Setting up things in the apartment.
-Examples: drawers rolled out smoother, so door system for the cupboards roll out to access, opening
up the blinds because he need someone to twist the blinds, locking and opening windows, automatic
door opener (he already has), being able to see into a mirror better
RELATIONSHIPS WITH ATTENDANTS
-It’s a group of people, one person 5 days in the morning, and other 2 days
-Other that come throughout the day for other things like food, and other general things
-Hired and paid by Supportive Services
-Person comes in and estimates how much you need(help) and gives you a certain number of hours to
fulfill your needs
-Stretching, dressing, bathing, bathroom, personal hygiene, cooking meal, cleaning: dusting
vacuuming, shopping (sometimes), laundry, basic functions to live and get by
-With the program they are supposed to help him with needs in the home, so they can’t drive him
around or really help him with anything outside the house
Do you like having attendants?
Yea well they are kind of a necessity. He looks to find people that he would get along with but also
would be able to fulfill his needs, their personality since you spend 5-6 hours a day with this person. You
kind of want to get along with them. You want to find someone that will stay with you a while so things
are more streamlined and effective. An effective working relationship.
MORE PROBLEMS IN ROUTINE
-Access his bags by himself in the sides and whatnot
-A lot of things rely on trust, most people are willing to help but things like letting other people pay for
stuff for him with his wallet are sometimes a problem.
-He goes through life trying not to paranoid because that is no way to live life.
-Lesson: Don’t put all your cash in your wallet.
SAFETY
-Getting around town, he wears a chest strap. He isn’t capable of putting it on himself since his balance
is not that great, but if he hits a bump on the sidewalk, without out it he could potentially fall down and
become stuck.
-Learned the hard way to wear chest strap. He used to see other people use them and thought it was
stupid till he fell himself.

19. -Locks his chair down on the bus and BART.
-Story: Was on the bus, when it stopped suddenly and he stood up briefly and then feel face first on the
aisle and ended up with tread marks on the face
EATING
-How can I eat by myself? He sticks a fork in his wristband and brings the fork to his mouth.
-This accomplishment meant more independence, and at first he had to get fed
-Story: His dad fed him the first time in the hospital with the bumblebee and he couldn’t speak at the
time since he was on a ventilator, lol and afterwards told his dad if you ever do that again, I will never
talk to you again
-To his parents he became like a kid again
-Mom was like I wish it was me instead of you, you have this whole life ahead of you
-Dad was upset, but what can you do, can’t do anything now
-Family still treats him the same with shit talking, but he just needs more help from them
-Independence is always important, especially In college and was brutal to lose all independence
WHAT ELSE IS IMPORTANT
-Independence, trust
-RELATIONSHIPS with girlfriends and friends and family, life is all about relationships
-Everything is better with better relationships
-One thing he really enjoys a lot is service, giving back to the country
POWER SOCCER
-Doing a lot through coaching power soccer and translating that to life
-A lot of people with disabilities don’t realize all of the things they are capable of doing
-Try to give them confidence from the court to life
You can’t do that and you can’t do that, and they get the cant mindset and sit in front of the TV
-This isn’t true, yea you can, You just have to learn how. Strategy from court to life
-Works with 8-10 years old to 60 years old with all different type of disabilities with boys girls men
women
-He used to play, but then he became coach after the previous coach retired
-Sport transferred to different style
-2 time power soccer champion coach
-Could potentially play at that level but only with a lot of work
TECHNOLOGIES
Easy pivot
Wrist splints-simple bar through straps with cuff that goes through hand that can hold a pen
Driving joystick mechanism, lift to get in van
Computer
Wheelchair
Longer straw
Table from ikea that has legs to extend to different lengths
Rehab: took an old bedside table that he could raise and lower to different heights for personal care
attendant or for him: adjustable
Door opener
Ramp to get in door: 6in ramp
Racer switches for light switches to make it easier

20. Patio door, he put a handle with a strap to patio door
Unlocks door with a chopstick
Pill box, push a button on the side and pull out, to put in bag so it doesn’t spill but it’s harder to open
Lap tray, tray with a cushion underneath (handiest ever)
Trackball on computer
Headset for the phone. Phone on the chest strap,
CLOSING THOUGHTS
When thinking of a robot , he thinks of irobot, some autonomous robot that is capable of doing manual
work R2d2 might not be able to do a whole lot for him, incapable of stretching his legs, get him out of
bed. Like getting the pillbox out of bag and opening it requires fine motor skills.
Some type of machine to stretch his legs
Stretching is exercise for him
Another device he used to use , needed 1-2 people that helped me to stand, to help with the blood flow
and bone density
Anything with injury, first thing to do is start walking. Have the body be able to sit upright and be dizzy
and acclimated and it’s this movement that really keeps the body healthy
Chinese medicine to keep the body moving, move the arms and bend the knees while just waiting
around
Reliability is key, if you can’t get in and out of bed you’re screwed, can’t go anywhere
I can eat in bed, but he still needs someone to feed me, you need someone there
Lonely without company with attendants
Get people to come to you, but you have to make the effort
KEY POINT
ROBOTS ARE REALLY INCAPABLE OF FINE MOTOR MOVEMENTS RIGHT NOW

21. 2.24.13
Dr. Park Interview (Medical Doctor)
Statement
Needs
“For those who have chronic medical needs but
don’t need hospitals and IV antibiotics”
Product provides chronic medical need support
“Hospitals are very expensive”
Product is cheap and easily accessible
“ babies… can’t breathe on their own. They have
to be hooked up to a machine with regular visits
from nurses”
Product is reliable and is fully functioning 24/7
“…foot is amputated because they suffer an
infection after stepping on something. A robot
that replaces their foot or even help them adjust
to their new lifestyle can be something that can
support them”
Product helps patient adjust to new lifestyle
“a robot that figures out when to deliver the
medication will be extremely beneficial to the
patient”
Product records schedule or blood level to
determine when to supply medication
“I would like to know whether my patient has
taken his/her pill three times a day like I instructed
them to do, or whether they did their physical
therapy”
Product provides feedback to doctor or hospital
“The nose, mouth, and urinary areas are
sometimes difficult to reach and see”
Product is able to see all areas of the patient’s
body
Reflection
This interview was the first interview that I did for this project. Before it began, I made a list of
questions I believed that I would go through; however, this was not the case. Based on the responses
I’ve received I began to ask questions that were not on the list. In a way, this helped improve the flow of
the interview and made the whole process more emotional and less engineered. I realized midway
through the interview to take advantage of using open ended questions and use the responses I got to
further divulge and expand the interview. Not only did this improve the flow of the interview, but I was
also able to get a better understanding of the issues and needs of medical personnel and patients.
Looking back I should have done the interview via Skype instead of on the phone. The issue with doing
an interview over the phone is the lack of emotional connection between me and Joe. I could’ve gotten
a better understanding or feeling from Joe about some of the issues he deals with. I also learned that a
one person interview is not very ideal. Having to record and conduct the interview at the same time is

22. really difficult. There were instances where there were long pauses in between the responses and
questions because of me recording the responses and on numerous occasions I had to have Joe repeats
some of his responses. Overall, I’m pleased with this interview. We definitely added a different
perspective on the user needs.
Interview Transcript (Note some responses are summaries of what was actually stated)
Q: What does home health care mean to you?
A: Home health care is for those who have chronic medical needs but don’t need hospitals and IV
antibiotics. Hospitals are very expensive and home health care can be a cheaper alternative to it.
Q: In pediatrics where do you find a need for home health care?
A: Well a lot of the patients I deal with don’t have critical illnesses or need constant hospital care, so let
me get back to you on that.
Q: So I’m working on finding applications where tensegrity soft robots can play a role in home health
care. In what instances would soft robots or any robot would you find helpful to you, nurses, patients, or
anyone else affiliated in the home health industry?
A: When babies are born prematurely or undergo trauma, sometimes they can’t breathe on their own.
They have to be hooked up to a machine with regular visits from nurses. Maybe the robot can provide
constant surveillance on the babies.
Q: How about outside the hospital?
A: Maybe helping out the permanently disabled. For example, people with diabetes sometimes lose
feeling at their feet. There are instances their foot is amputated because they suffer an infection after
stepping on something. A robot that replaces their foot or even help them adjust to their new lifestyle
can be something that can support them.
Q: What are some things that you see a robot providing for a user/patient?
A: I can think of three things: service, mobility assistance, and medication.
Q: Can you be more specific about service regarding medication?
A: For example, there are insulin pumps that learn when to supply insulin. Initially the user manually
supplies the insulin, but the pump will learn when to supply the medication automatically. Something
similar but with other diseases, such as HIV, can potentially help a patient. There are also drugs that
that are most effective at certain blood levels. Having a robot that figures out when to deliver the
medication will be extremely beneficial to the patient.
Q: What about assisting you or any other medical personal?
A: Not sure. Maybe something like biofeedback. There are prostheses out there that move on based on
nerve signals. Something similar to this feature, but gives doctors information instead. For example, I
would like to know whether my patient has taken his/her pill three times a day like I instructed them to
do, or whether they did their physical therapy.
Q: What are some of the most common type of issues you see in your patients?
A: In acute care, the cold is something very common. In chronic care, diabetes is something I deal with
quite often.

23. Q: Are there any physical challenges you encounter when treating a patient?
A: The nose, mouth, and urinary areas are sometimes difficult to reach and see. We have specialty
doctors who we will call to deal with these issues.
Q: I was just curious if there was something that a patient might go to a hospital for, but really don’t
need to?
A: Yes, for drug rehabilitation. There are legal reasons why they have to come to the hospital, but let
say someone addicted heroin is going through rehab. The hospital would supply certain dosages of
medication similar to heroin in small quantities, once a week. This is done so that the individual
addicted to heroin can slowly lose their dependency to the drug.

24. Meeting With Adrian in the BEST LAb
February 25th, 2013
Statement








Tensegrity structures are very good at
being in contact with things
Very robust, extremely difficult to damage
tensegrity
Forces are distributed
 No joint is fixed
 Rods of tensegrity robots are
joined by cables
 Instead of amplifying forces, the
forces are deamplified thus
requiring less power
 Compliant
 Little movement at the cables will
have a large effect on the
displacements of the rods
 All forces are axial
Actuators changes cable lengths only
 10% change in cable lengths can
have a significant effect on the rod
movement
Collapsible – can have the ability to vary in
size. Can have size varying from the size
of a backpack to a small room
Robust – tensegrity like structure allows
the robot to withstand sudden
introduction of forces
Things to consider:
 What do we want to sense?
 What will it look like?
 Will it be able to communicate?
 Is it going to replace the human
element, the caregiver?
4 factors:
 Motion
 Sensing
 Communication
 Manipulation
Analysis
When Adrian stated that tensegrity structure are
very good at being in contact with things, he
meant that due to its soft nature, tensegrity
structures can interact with anything object
without damaging them.
Tensegrity soft structures are inherently robust.
Due to the elastic nature of the cables and the way
the forces are distributed along the rods and
cables, tensegrity robots can withstand
considerable amount of sudden applied force.
The design of a tensegrity structure (none of the
joints are fixed and rods are joined by cables)
allows it to absorb a lot of impact.
The tensegrity robots are able to vary in size so
easily because very minimal changes in cable
length have a considerable effect on the rod’s
movements and the overall volume that the parts
of the robot occupy is also very small.
Things we have to consider when designing and
building a tensegrity structure is the motion of the
robot, the elements that the robot is going to
sense, the communication between the actuators
and the controller, and the manipulation of the
tensegrity structure

25. Reflection
Adrian, a NASA scientist working on tensegrity robotics, was kind enough to visit Berkeley and
briefly explain to us what tensegrity robotics was. Because tensegrity soft robotics is a relatively new
field in robotics, we had a lot of questions about them. Some of the things we needed clarification and
understanding on were the pros of tensegrity soft robots and what distinguished this type of robotics
with conventional ones. Going into this interview, we have a lot of different ideas for potential products
in home health care, but all of our ideas seem to be easily solved by conventional robotics. What we
needed to get out of this interview was figure out some of the favorable characteristics of tensegrity
soft robotics and design a product that revolves around this information.
From this interview, we were able to get a lot of facts about tensegrity soft robotics and some
of advantages they had over conventional ones. Some of the things that we learned and can use were
that tensegrity soft robotics are very robust and can easily change size. A lot of our ideas were small
scale, but one of the ideas that grew out of this interview was potentially changing the scale of the
robot by considering a tensegrity structure that is twice the size of a human being.
Overall, we got a better understanding of tensegrity soft robotics, but we’re still somewhat
clueless as to what our product is going to be. Two things that we can focus on are potentially designing
a product that resembles a ball or snake, because these two design was something that NASA found
most success with. In general though, we still need to gather more feedback about home health care
and some of the problems surrounding it to implement some of the information we learned at the
interview.

26. Interview Write-up: Medical Supply Store
2.25.12
Johnson Medical Supply
Goals for Interview:
We wanted to look at existing products and ask the store staff what were common features patients
looked for in products.
Johnson Medical Supplies:
First impressions:


Wide automatically opening door and a ramp leading up to the store.
Inside a large selection of products.
Types of Products:










Walkers
Canes, quad canes, foldable canes
Power seat
patient lift
wheel chairs
scooters
exercise products
daily living aids
mobility table
bed and seating products
Walkers: (Price $200-400)








adjustable seat height and handles
brakes
foldable seat
12 lbs total weight
modular - parts are removable
accessories: cup holder, seat pad, tray
8'' wheels for indoor/outdoor use
"quiet"
Advertising terms: light, small size, ergonomic: contoured handles & brake levers
"folds flat for transportation"
"warranty"

27. "Promotes better posture"
Shower Stools and Chairs - ($ 50-150)
Chairs ($800-1300)
- "Attractive, easy to maintain"
- Strength, durability, steel
- handle extender
Power Chairs ($5000 or $550/month rental)
Power Patient Lifter ($2,500)
- "quiet, smooth operation to reduce patient anxiety"
- emergency stop
- comfortable
Scooters ($1500-2500)
- baskets
- lights
- large tire diameter
* All products also mentioned weight capacity
Reflection
Johnson Medical Supply store was ironically a very difficult place for anyone with disabilities to
navigate. It was stuffed full of all sorts of products, which overflowed into the isles of the store. First, we
simply looked at the medical products they sell to get a general idea for what types of products are
currently on the market. Then we asked the store employees a little about the types of products people
wanted.
We were surprised at the high cost of very simple products like shower chairs and walkers. The
very industrial appearance of many of the products was far different than products in any other store,
especially considering the price.

28. Paul Hippolitus, DSP Director needs of and services for disabled students
February 26, 2013
Statement
Need
“DSP provides as much aid as possible while
ensuring the essential nature of classes is kept
intact”
Product provides aid while keeping the core
experience intact.
“Some students are unable to process a lecture at
full speed so we have others take notes for them
or use a tool like live scribe to help them”
Product enhances students’ ability to process
lectures.
“Some students are hearing impaired and require
the use of a caption cart, which captions the
lecture with a four to five second delay”
Product helps enhance or replace missing or
damaged sensory functions.
“students have a difficult time in the chaos of a
discussion”
Product assists users in complex and dynamic
situations.
“Elevators are too small for students to fit in with
their wheelchairs’
Product enables students to transfer between
floors.
“The hills of Berkeley’s campus are too steep for
manual wheelchairs”
Product provides mobility to user.
“Students are often stuck during emergency
events”
Product help user in event of emergency.
“Students do not get sufficient social interaction”
Product serves to enhance user social life.
“nothing for me without me”
Product must be designed with disabled input at
every step.
Reflection
When Seth and I (John) first began this interview it started with a lot of background on disability
legislation. While the names, dates, and politics behind the legislation were unimportant, some of the
ideas from the legislation showed us new avenues for the design and analysis of our co-robot. The idea
of maintaining the essential nature of the activity, as articulated in the Americans with Disabilities Act is
an inspiration to aid our users while maintaining the essential nature of their lives.
The greatest nugget of information we got out of this interview was the concept of “nothing for
me without me.” We knew from the beginning that this project would require us to carefully study our
users in order to meet their needs. What we were not thinking as much about though was bringing our
users into every step of the design. If we are able to do this it will greatly increase our project’s chances

29. of fulfilling their needs. Moving forward we will try to keep potential users in the design loop as much
as possible so that we can incorporate their knowledge and experience into the design.
I learned how important it is to review an interview several times and dissect each response
fully. In the interview, the value of the “nothing for me without me” concept was something I picked up
on almost immediately. However the idea of “essential nature” was not something that I thought of
until I went back and carefully reviewed the transcript.
Interview Transcript
Partial transcript of notes taken while doing the interview:
Q: Can you provide us with a little background on the creation and evolution of the DSP?
In the mid 80’s the access board was created at a federal level to implement non-discrimination laws.
Over the years the laws have increased their complexity and coverage. The ADA act requires that all
government agencies provide accessibility. This led directly to the creation of the DSP to assist
disabled students at UC Berkeley. One example of the access board’s work is that all websites are
arranged in JAWS readable type. This enables blind people to use the internet.
Q: What are some of the challenges you face in providing assistance to students.
ADA requires that professors provide any aid so long as it does not change the essential nature of the
class. This leads at times to a debate between academic freedom and non-discrimination. The concept
of essential nature is also difficult to define. For example students with dyscalcula cannot use a
calculator on nursing tests, because it is essential that nurses do mental math on the spot.
Q: What are some of the common services you provide?
The assistance that each student requires is unique. With that in mind some of our more common
services are note taking, because the students have difficulty processing full speed. We also use live
scribe pens to allow students to play back over the lecture. For the hearing impaired we provide a
caption cart so that they can read the professors lecture in real time, but it has a four to five second
delay. Our students especially have difficulty during class discussions because of the chaos in the
classroom. If they can’t hear or speak well they are unlikely to get the whole discussion experience. We
focus on addressing functional limitations, using accommodations unique to each user and situation.
We also address the fact that the Berkeley campus is located on a hill, many students arrive with
manual wheelchairs, but they all receive power chairs. Also the average age of campus elevators is 50
years and many of them are too small to accommodate disabled students, but they are very expensive
to replace.
Q: What are some problems that disabled students have that you feel are not being adequately
addressed?

30. Emergency evacuation plans are difficult. Students in wheelchairs have been carried over stairs by the
flow of people. We have attempted to give all students with wheelchairs walkie-talkies so they can talk
with rescue personal. The problem is the batteries can die or the students might leave their walkietalkies at home. Students who drive to campus lack sufficient parking. UC Berkeley as a whole has a
parking problem and the disabled spaces are only mandated at a ratio that leaves us with insufficient
spaces. Another key issue for our disabled students is social interaction. Sometimes they come talk to
me just because they don’t really know anyone else. I feel like disabled students are often ignored by
the non-disabled for fear of offending them our doing something wrong, but this just makes them more
isolated. Several disabled students have left UC Berkeley because they felt to alone.
Do you have any additional comments?
First, I feel like we have difficulty serving our Grad student population. Four percent of undergraduates
are registered with the DSP versus less than two percent of graduates. I think that there are a number
of factors such as additional pressure and a reluctance to ask for “special allowances,” but I still want to
be able to provide the services that these students need. Also and most importantly in your project
remember that any design for the disabled must be an interactive process, “nothing with me without
me.”

31. 3.3.13
Audrey Wu: BioEngineering Student
Introduction
I interviewed an old family friend of mine, Audrey Wu. She is a junior in BioEngineering,
who has a rare blood condition which requires biweekly hospital visits. Some of her biggest
concerns were the impact that her condition has on the rest of her family, and the coldness of
the healthcare professionals during the stay in the hospital.
User Needs
Emotional security from financial burden placed on family
Energy to continue relationship with friends and family
Emotional connection with doctors and nurses without compromising their jobs
Loneliness in the hospital
Pain of using needles
Reflection and Lessons Learned
After conducting an interview with a partner as the transcriber of the pair and
attempting to do this interview myself, I realized how much less information I got in the entire
process. The pace of the interview was much slower than the other interview and I realized my
phone’s audio recorder was not good enough to catch much of the interview at all, so I was
incapable of going back to retake some more notes on the entire interview exchange.
Also, because of the overall slower pace compared to the interview I had as a pair, there
was less information to collect overall and there were some awkward pauses in the process
where I had to tell Audrey to wait for me before she continued talking so I could catch up with
the notes. This seemed to make her lose her train of thought a couple of times and I had to
prompt her on what she was talking about prior to the pause. This caused the interview
process to be much choppier than expected and I found I had to go back to written down
question more often than thinking of follow-up question organically.
I ran out of question at the end and unfortunately that is how the interview ended, so
next time I will have to plan and write down more questions to keep the interview going.
My process for this interview was that I hypothesized Audrey would have less to talk
about the physical medical technology part of having her specific condition of anemia and
more to talk about the emotional problems of her medical condition. This is why I tried to focus
more on the emotional side and determine the emotional needs that she needed fulfilled
because of her medical condition.
As the interview progressed I saw that her main concern that she seemed to feel was in
fact her relationships and not her physical needs that needed to be fulfilled because she really
did not interact with too many medical equipment. This was mainly because she could function
by herself normally 99% of the time without any assistance from other people during her daily
routine. It was only the hospital visits that were holding her back and her physique because she

32. ran out of energy some weeks during her recovery. Her main concern specifically was her
family and friends.
Unfortunately this interview did not produce as much as the other interviewees who
had more severe physical handicaps. Many of the emotions Audrey felt were to be expected
and there were no real insights that varied too much from that of the other interviews. The
user needs that were collected in this interview were merely emotional ones since she had
practically no experience with medical equipment or technology used with handicapped
people.
Interview Transcript [Audrey Wu]
Partial transcript of notes taken while doing the interview.
Note: some lines are just summaries of what was actually said.
Q. What is the worst part of the hospital experience?
I would definitely say the cost of being at the hospital, but I guess that isn’t a tangible worst
part of the hospital, but that definitely follows you around for the rest of your daily routine, the
constant weight of knowing your family has to pay for these hospital visit for me.
But in terms of the actual hospital, I really don’t enjoy the loneliness during the biweekly visits
there. Sitting there for hours on end by yourself without anyone to talk to sometimes is the
worst and you just count the hours with television shows. The shows just go on and on and you
just kind of blankly stare because you really don’t want to watch the shows, you just want it to
be over and go home. It is nice when mom or dad or my sister stays with me, but they generally
have things to do during the day and they can’t sit there with me all day talking to me.
Q. Could you also go into some other unpleasant experiences you have experienced at the
hospital?
The doctors have this fake initial kindness when they first meet you to try and calm you
down on the whole situation, but as you get accustomed to them, you realize that they really
have much attachment to their patients. I guess this is supposed to be part of their job, to not
get emotionally attached, but it’s just an unpleasant feeling to put your life in their hands and
they don’t seem to have any investment in you getting better. Or at least they don’t show it.
Q. What is the best part of the hospital experience?
I wouldn’t say any part of being in the hospital is the “best,” but every once in a while a nurse
comes in that actually seems to care and it is always nice to experience those types of people.
The only problem with this is that nurses are fickle and they change constantly, at least for me,
for each visit. So some visits to the hospital for the blood transfusion are much worse than
others.
Q. What are just some of the emotions you have felt through this entire experience?

33. Initially it was a self-pity, and I used to think that was the strongest emotion I felt and the
constant asking to myself, “Why me?” But now I know that it’s not the emotions for
myself, but for my family and my friends, that make me feel the worst about this disease.
It is the financial guilt and guilt of not having enough energy to dance or have adventures with
my friends or not being able to hang out with my friends at all on the weekend because I have
to go home to Freemont and go to my biweekly schedule hospital visit. It’s these things that hit
me the hardest.
Q. Could you elaborate on the feelings of guilt on your family?
The financial burden is so much. My family definitely is not rich, actually we don’t even make
50k for our total family household income so it’s hard to essentially force these bills on my
parents and even though I have talked to them about the bills, they continue to say that it’s no
burden that my health comes above all else, but it’s just hard to believe and it weighs on me all
the time.
Not only that, the independence I gained the first semester of college was amazing and I felt
like I finally left home, only to have to come back home again and have my parents drive me to
and back from the hospital on the weekends. This was an unfortunate change for me
Q. Could you tell me about some of the technologies that you used at the hospital?
I can’t say too much on this, because I don’t really use too much. Initially I had some blood
work done when I initially went to the hospital just for being sick and low on energy and that’s
where they diagnosed me. Yea they just did a lot of blood work, diagnosed me and told me
that I had to come in every 2 weeks to get my levels tested and see how I was doing and to
regulate my blood levels.
Q. Can you talk about some of the medical equipment you found unpleasing?
I really don’t enjoy needles, but I eventually kind of got a little desensitized to the entire needle
in arm thing, but I still really do not enjoy it. There are some cool tricks that some nurses do
some it doesn’t sting, but not all of them do it.

34. 3.4.13
Kie Fuji Interview
Interview Transcript
Q: Could you go through your daily routine?
At 6 in the morning wake up, my attendant stretches my legs and arms for an hour
She helps me change clothes and with my personal hygiene routine. She then transfers me
from the bed to the chair and helps me get my food ready which I eat in my room. I get my
books and papers that I printed in my backpack. My attendant helps me from 6-7:30 am and
then I have classes from 8-12. Then the 2nd attendant comes to help me get food afterwards.
Twice a week I work out at Pleasanton for 2 hours each.
Q: Could you talk about your attendant schedule?
She has 4 different attendants
She preps dinner.
Because of her physical limitation she can’t write, so she has homework scribes.
She goes to club meeting 7-8. Other days she goes to study groups.
She has a morning attendant, one on the weekday and one on the weekend, same for lunch
Night attendant works every day.
She gets stretched for an hour at night because her muscles tightened up.
Someone comes in once during the night because she sleeps on one side and she gets pressure
sores and they roll her over.
Q: What are some difficulties on campus?
Can’t press elevator buttons. Needs to ask random people to press buttons for her
The building in SLC has a good elevator that has regular elevator and you can hit it with the
chair since big and lower
The door opener has the top switch but not the bottom one
The sign walks for when pressing it is hard
There are cracks on the sidewalk and the wires of her wheelchair got stuck once
LeConte, says there is an accessible area here, but there were stairs, and sometimes the signs
are misleading and she had to go around the building. Same problem for wheeler. Has to take
2 elevators and has a roundabout way to get into buildings.
She did get a radio from the director, she uses her cellphone in cases of emergency, so she
doesn’t carry the radio around since its useless to her.
Got hit by a car one time. People in cars don’t see her since she was so low while she was
backing up.
WERE YOU BY YOURSELF WHEN YOU WERE HIT? WHAT DID YOU DO IN THAT TYPE OF
SITUATION?
People just helped her.
In dorms she has the Cal id card and she can scan it to open the door to open the ground floor
door. It would be better if she could do that for other doors on campus. It would be more
convenient.

35. Benefit of having a lot of people on campus. There are always people to help out.
She once was going down a hill and had a muscle spasm and fell and landed on the joystick.
WAS A NIGHTMARE.
Really bad sidewalks and hills in Berkeley. Her chair has broken 3 times.
Her chair broke down dead week and had her attendant push her around.
She wishes they had spare power chairs at DSP for these situations. The motor usually breaks.
When it’s raining outside she needs to wear a poncho because she can’t get the joystick wet
and she can’t get the poncho stuck in the wheels.
Q: Could you list off some technologies you use?
-For homework or when she is emailing people, so she just speaks into a microphone, but it’s a
problem for stuff like chemistry.
-Hand strap has a hole to feed herself.
-A lot of tables aren’t adjustable so she has to sit at the end of the table
-For organic chemistry she was talking the full 2-3 hours during the final.
-Problems with iclickers. She couldn’t press the buttons. There is an app that can be used as an
iclicker for her iPhone.
-She doesn’t take much medication. No pain, but a lot of spinal cord injury patients’ use it to
reduce the amount of pain they feel. The problem she has is when the day changes her body
can’t regulate its own temperature as well because of her disability. A nebulizer- put medicine
inside (like an inhaler with a mask) and it’s supposed to open up your lungs and cough up all the
mucus.
Q: What are some of the emotions you felt during and after the accident?
It was caused by a car accident May of 2002, 11 years ago. I used to be a really avid runner and
go to junior Olympics and did gymnastics, track and field, dance. It was very difficult transition.
I was very confused with the doctor terminology. I was 9 and didn’t really know what was
happening, but I did know it was a severe injury because whenever friends and family members
would look at me and they would start crying. It never occur to me that I couldn’t move and I
would ask my mom when I could walk and she would always say in a month. But when I got
older it started to hit me more. I was sad a lot in high school. Elementary school wasn’t too bad
since people knew me before the accident, but the moving from Georgia to California I had
trouble making friends.
STORY: In 8th grade, a girl said to me, “Oh I didn’t know you could read and write.” Even when I
went to japan, people would just stare at me. Disabled people are less culturally accepted
outside of the US.
It’s hard when the doctors tell me to give up on walking. They would look at MRI and situation
and tell my parents why they are wasting money to go to Project Walk. They think its false
advertisement which isn’t true because there are so many clients that have gone from not
being able to walk at all to using crutches.

36. Q: What was a main fear of yours that happened from your disability?
I am scared that my physical limitation will affect me from getting a job that I want in the
future. I want to be a radiologist. Radiology was influenced by my accident. I looked up to
these nurses and doctors, but I obviously can’t be a surgeon or a pediatrician and radiology
would be the most realistic field for me since they analyze images. When I finally shadowed a
radiologist he used drag and drop and used a microphone to diagnose and these are all things
that I can do even with my disability.
Reflection
Kie Fuji is a quadriplegic sophomore student of UC Berkeley. We scheduled the
interview through my contact with Kie as a student of my high school. She had her accident
when she was 9 in a freak car accident that left her disabled and unable to move any of her
limbs. Through the years however, she has regained some of her ability to move her arms and
her hand. Her dexterity and ability to move these limbs is still a far cry from an abled person’s
ability.
The main differences with Kie’s life compared to that of the normal student are her very
scheduled life. There is not too much leeway in terms of her schedule. She has a very set
schedule with her attendants that come every single day to get her ready for the day and get
her ready to go back to sleep. She also needs her attendants to stretch her along with her
scheduled stretching session at a physical therapy center. Again, like many of the other
disabled people we have interviewed, independence was her biggest concern in her story after
she had come to terms with her accident and her disabilities. She didn’t discuss too many issue
with the fact of dignity aside form that fact that she has to ask for help a lot with things like
reaching and pressing elevator buttons because she is not elevated high enough or doesn’t
have the arm strength to press the button sufficiently to operate the elevator. She says this can
be embarrassing and difficult when attending her 8am class when there aren’t too many
people to ask for help.
The expenses of her mobility also remained an issue with her especially with the hills
that are everywhere around the Berkeley campus. Kie has already gone through 3 power
wheelchairs which cost a lot to repair and replace. Each chair averages 5000 dollars. Also
stretching requires at least hour of work for her attendants everyday not including her extra
physical therapy sessions. The stretching usually happens once in the morning and once at
night.
Independently taking care of herself was an important need and if not being able to,
being able to trust the caretakers was essential since in the transition from high school to
college, Kie had to change from letting her mother and father take care of her to alternate
caretakers that are paid.

37. User Needs
Statement



Issues with her life
 She has homework scribes
 She has 4 attendants that come in
and out depending on the day and
time of day
 It is difficult for her to take tests
on subjects like organic chemistry
 She is afraid of not being able to
do what she wants. Her job
capabilities in the future are very
limited because of this accident.
Campus design features need to be more
sensitive to wheelchair students
 The elevator buttons are too high;
they need to be lowered like the
ones in the dorms.
 The hills of Berkeley and sidewalks
are very tough on power
wheelchairs. They strain the
motor, either better sidewalks or
better, stronger wheelchairs need
to be made.
 Sidewalk cracks get her
wheelchair wheels stuck.
 Doors don’t open with her CalID
like in the dorms. This would
make mobility on campus much
simpler since she can’t open the
doors herself.
 There is no real solution for rainy
days aside from wearing a poncho
since her wheelchair can’t get wet
otherwise it would break.
Emotions during the process
 Initially she did not know how to
feel about the accident, but as she
came to realization of what she
was capable of she fell into a
period of depressions where it was
hard for her to communicate with
people.
 Her mother used to tell her that
she would be all better within a
Analysis
The transition from her parents to caretakers
taking care of her was difficult because of the trust
that was involved is performing such intimate
tasks.
Independence and more sensitivity to the trials
and tribulations of students in wheelchairs on
campus were greatly wanted by Kie. There were
many issues here that she described.
There were many notes on how her stretching was
one of the biggest if not the biggest thing for her
physical therapy. To keep blood running through
her body was extremely important. She had some
ideas on how to make this better.
It is hard to communicate people and hold dates
and whatnot because of her disability. She doesn’t
see too many people because of her mobility
issues and mainly stays by herself seeing her
friends every once in a while. Loneliness is a main
issue. If it was easier to set up social meetings it
would be better.

38. 
month, but it never came and she
eventually came to realize it was a
false promise.
She not has come to accept it and
feels much better about it. She
knows her disability and realizes
how it will and has affected her
life. She is sad sometimes, but
usually is fine. Life is lonely
sometimes.

39. 3.6.13
Mark (Volunteer at Ashby Village)
Statement
Needs
“Many seniors are frustrated about their physical
mobility and lack of independence”
Product increases mobility
“Keyboards and touch screens are a challenge.
Some elderly people with arthritis use their
knuckles to type and find it almost impossible to
type on iPads/iPhones or other touch screens”
Product has simple interface with large buttons or
other simple user inputs.
“One older woman who had macular
degeneration had a large electric book reader.
Since her eyesight was very poor, she couldn’t
read books anymore so she needed a machine
that enlarged the text many times its normal size
onto a TV screen.”
Product is accessible to users with poor eyesight.
“They are very grateful. Many are also frustrated
that they need someone to come help them with
simple tasks they used to be able to do on their
own, but everyone is still grateful.”
Product use allows the user to retain their dignity.
“Almost everything in Johnson’s Medical Supply
store needs to be redesigned. The wheel chairs
and other products look like they are from the
1940s and they are all a bland, industrial color.
Also, they are very very expensive.”
Product is attractive.
Product is affordable.
Reflection:
Mark was happy to talk to us and shared many of his thoughts and observations from his
volunteer work. This made the interview very conversational instead of a list of questions, which was
great. I think this allowed us to better understand what he thought was important since our list of
questions did not dictate the interview. In this conversational setting we gathered a significant amount
of knowledge that our list of questions would not have elicited. For example, Mark’s discussion of his
own health care insurance and his observations of the different types of senior living arrangements
were new to us.
We were very fortunate that Mark had product design experience as well as his experience
volunteering with seniors. The interview was set up before we knew his career was in product design, so
that was great surprise. He was adamant about redesigning a current product instead of trying to invent
a robotic system. This gave us practice with our interviewing skills since we had to collect information
about the applications of robotics, without asking any robot-specific questions.

40. Overall it was a successful interview, and one in which I better followed the interviewing
guidelines than in my previous two interviews.
Transcript:
Can you tell us a little about yourself? How did you become involved with Ashby Village?
Mark works as an industrial and graphic designer. He became involved with Ashby Village when an
elderly neighbor told him about it. He said, “Everyone has an excuse to be busy,” but he feels that
volunteering is important.
Tell us about Ashby Village. How do you join? Is there a membership fee? Etc…
Ashby Village is a community of elderly people who are living at home, but have access to a volunteer
network. Volunteers help seniors with a large variety of tasks and organize group activities and classes
for the seniors. Ashby Village has a membership fee of $1000 per year. Some of that covers the
administrative costs, but admin costs are very low – there is only one full time and one part time paid
employee – everything else is run by volunteers.
What types of volunteer activities have you done with Ashby Village?
Mark has taught an iPad class to seniors in Ashby village. He has also done housework or yard work.
Little projects like replacing light bulbs or helping someone set up a book reading machine. The types
of volunteering that are most need include driving elderly to doctors’ appointments … The village
provides a social group and a support group to individuals who often start to feel isolated living in their
homes.
or gardening.
How do the elderly feel about having someone come to their home to help them?
They are very grateful. Many are also frustrated that they need someone to come help them with
simple tasks they used to be able to do on their own, but everyone is still grateful.
What are some of the more common problems seniors face?
- Frustration over physical mobility and lack of independence
- Can no longer drive
- Can’t walk up stairs in their own home, so many elderly have stopped using half of their house.
Solutions:
- Cut curbs in the US have helped mobility. In other countries you don’t see disabled people walking
around in public unassisted.
Product Design Perspectives:
We asked Mark for specific examples of things the elderly had a hard time using and specific things
that worked well.

41. Elderly Issues/ Solutions:
Dexterity issues:
Keyboards and touch screens are a challenge. Some elderly people with arthritis use their
knuckles to type and find it almost impossible to type on iPads/iPhones or other touch screens.
Key-less Entry:
Example: Prius – The Prius has key-less entry to the car doors. Also, the car has a keyless start.
If the key is in the car, the user only has to press a large button to start the car. This is very convenient
for elderly as well as other users.
You said driving elderly to doctors’ appointments was a very common and highly needed volunteer
activity. Can you elaborate on the issues elderly face in getting to a health-care provider? Have you
seen any good solutions?
I personally can email my doctor since I have Kaiser Permanente health insurance. That has saved me a
number of trips into the doctor’s office. I have self-diagnosed a problem, then emailed my doctor. They
have electronic health records and healthy life-style programs. In the future I see more health care
providers adding electronic options so patients, and especially older patients don’t have to make a trip
to a doctors office as frequently.
What sorts of products to elderly use to help them remain in their home?
One older woman who had macular degeneration had a large electric book reader. Since her eyesight
was very poor, she couldn’t read books anymore so she needed a machine that enlarged the text many
times its normal size onto a TV screen. Unfortunately, the company she purchased it from left it on the
floor and she couldn’t pick it up and move it to a table where she could use it.
Other products I have seen are the grabber tools. People use them to pick things up off the
floor since they can’t easily bend over. They are also good for grabbing certain things off shelves.
What do you think about products that are currently on the market?
Almost everything in Johnson’s Medical Supply store needs to be redesigned. The wheel chairs and
other products look like they are from the 1940s and they are all a bland, industrial color. Also, they are
very very expensive.
I had to help my mother add a basket to her walker and fit tennis balls on the end of the walker. It is
amazing that it was so much of a hassle to use the product for what it was intended for and to have paid
so much for it.
Do you have any other thoughts about elderly and in-home living?
Ashby Village enables many seniors in Berkeley to remain in there home longer than they
would have, but it isn’t a solution that would work in many communities. Berkeley is unique in that
most of the elderly are fairly well off and have their homes paid off. Also, there are plenty of people
willing to volunteer.

42. In other places senior living condos might be the only option before assisted living. But I don’t
think those are a very good option. They are extremely expensive and neither the living space or the
food is very good. One need for the elderly is the general living environment needs to be re-thought.
There should be a more contemporary living option with better food.
I would recommend you check out OXO. They are a great example of a company that redesigned a
common product into something that can be used by elderly and young people alike. I would
recommend you try to redesign a poorly designed product instead of inventing something entirely new
in one semester.
Additionally, our project involves studying the applications of robotics in healthcare. Do you have
any thoughts on the use of robots in healthcare? Would you be comfortable with a robot providing
you healthcare?
I don’t know… I feel like that is pretty far in the future. I read an interesting article in WIRED about a
new type of robotics that learn by repeating an action people show them. I think the future is very
interesting, but I don’t know how they could be applied now.
Mark asked us: Would you use a Roomba vacuum cleaner? We said no because we were physically fit
and would rather pay for better cleaning power instead of a robot.

43. 3.8.13
Cheryl Crane’s Home Health Care Needs
Statement
“Home health care is providing for those who
aren’t so independent”
“make the lives of seniors easier”
“I found using the key very difficult”
“I found it odd that they had these automatic
faucet and soap dispensers. But I now think they
are so smart”
“Stairs are usually not recommended because a
lot of falls occur them”
“danger of slipping or falling in the shower is
something that needs to be addressed more
often”
Needs
The product must instill independence to the
user
The product must simplify daily activities
The product must provide the user a sense of
security
“It changes their attitude about life.”
The product must allow the user to feel confident
“To us it’s a way of communicating.”
The product should be able to allow the user to
feel more social
“Seniors are reluctant to modify or update their
homes because they have to eventually take it
down or don’t want the stigma associated with
looking like a hospital.”
The product must be customizable to the user
specification
The product must be portable
The product must be easily assembled
The product must be easy to use
Reflection
Cheryl Crane is a 60 year old designer who volunteers at the Ashby Village. Her job is to
evaluate people’s homes and make recommendations to make it more assessable and safer. She
usually evaluates the homes of the elderly, and from her experience finds fall prevention, vision and
mobility as a top priority.
Cheryl Crane is one of few people we got in contact with through the Ashby Village, a program
dedicated for the elderly. I decided to approach the interview as if she was a care taker, because her job
is primarily to assist. But right off the bat, she responded to one of my questions saying that she isn’t a
care taker but just someone who just simply assists. But using open ended questions (something we
learn to use after our first interview), I found out that she was in her 60s (one of the age groups that our
product is targeted for). So instead of interviewing her as a caretaker, I decided to interview her as an
elderly. She definitely gave me a ton of insight of her experience growing older and from her experience
on her job and what she observed. Again, I learned to use open ended question and have the

44. interviewee steer and guide the interview instead of me. I found that this is the best way to remove any
bias from my question and discover true needs for our target market.
Interview Transcript (Note some responses are summaries of what was actually stated)
Q: What does home health care mean to you?
A: Home health care is providing for those who aren’t so independent, for those who can’t provide for
themselves. For me, I assist those who are independent. I evaluate their homes and make them safer.
Q: Can you give me some more specific information on what you do?
A: Well I’m an interior designer and my primary job is to make the lives of seniors easier. I work with a
team of designers who go to the homes of those who contact the Ashby Village. We have a checklist
that we go through and look for any potential hazards. We evaluate the conditions of the sidewalk, the
way the entrance of the house is set up, side of the house, lighting, kitchen, wiring, bathroom and any
other areas of potential pitfalls. One of the major recommendations that I give them is, when possible,
to upgrade their stairs to ramps. Stairs are usually not recommended because a lot of falls occur them.
Falls is the number thing we try to prevent.
Q: Is there a reason why fall prevention is your number on goal?
A: Well when a senior falls, the repercussion isn’t just physical. It’s also mental. There is fear that grows
in them that deters them from performing that same task. It changes their attitude about life.
Q: In your personal experience what sort of technology do you see involved in the lives of the disabled
and elderly
A: Well a lot of in home health care involve technology. The automated wheelchair and blood pressure
monitor are two examples ... I also read some interesting devices on agenplacetech.com. There was this
one device that helped a gentleman with a vision disability see and another about a wearable tech
device that has sensors and everything.
The thing is people think that seniors don’t really want to get into technology and use the computer,
but that’s not always the case. I’m 60 and a lot of the people who participate in my apple workshop are
older than me. They want to learn to use the ipad and the computer. To us it’s a way of communicating.
Q: What is something that you noticed is troubling you recently that you previously were able to do?
A: Well I found using the key very difficult. I now fiddle with the keys and struggle to open the door
sometimes. I sometimes wish that our lock were similar to the ones in a hotel, where a swipe of a card
opens the door.
There was this one nice house I was inspecting and I found it odd that they had these automatic faucet
and soap dispensers. But I now think they are so smart. We don’t have to fiddle with anything and it
save water.
Q: You brought up how fall prevention was your number one goal. What are some common areas
besides the stairs do you feel the need for additional assessment?
A: The bathroom is a big one. There are some really cool technologies in the bathroom, but the danger
of slipping or falling in the shower is something that needs to be addressed more often. There are
hydraulic lifts that exist, but many bathrooms are simply too small for them. Many adults don’t realize
or refuse to believe that they’re growing older, and don’t really account for it.

45. There’s also the matter of rental home. Seniors are reluctant to modify or update their homes because
they have to eventually take it down or don’t want the stigma associated with looking like a hospital.
Rental homes are very small and the appliances are very basic and not particularly suited for the elderly.

46. 3.11.13
Laura, residential architect for Ashby Village
Introduction
John and I interviewed Laura, a residential architect for Ashby Village. Ashby Village is a concept
community in which senior citizens who prefer to age at home pool resources and volunteers to assist
one another. As a residential architect, Laura works with an interior designer to assess the accessibility
and safety of the homes of elderly members.
We interviewed her to get a better understanding of the typical problems she encounters in her
assessments, and what problems she is not able to fix. She uses a checklist of things to look for in the
home, along with an interview of the elderly person’s needs. She finished by giving the member a
report of recommendations to improve their home.
Reflections and Lessons Learned
Laura thought the needs of the user base (senior citizens) would change significantly as the older
boomers, who don’t know how to use computers, die out. This demographic is changing to people who
know how to use the internet and computers. So maybe we should target our robot design at this new
market, of people who are more comfortable with technology, robotics, and assistive devices.
She advocated a lot of home design solutions, remodeling homes or co-living, moving groups of retired
people together. Do we want to target groups, like nursing homes, with our robot? This group also
increases the resources available to afford and maintain our robot, something to think about.
Maybe even more so than current retirees, we may want to talk to future retirees: people who will be
senior citizens in 20 years. We have the problems that citizens currently have through our interviews
with the elderly. But the people who will be elderly when our product, 10 or 20 years out, finally
becomes technologically available at a consumer level, what problems will they have?
Pair interviewing worked really well here, we had a nice flow of conversation, got a lot of useful insight,
and focused, cohesive notes. The one thing: we would have liked to ask her more questions as she
retires. Banking off our last insight: Laura is a future retiree, how will she interact differently with her
environment and technology? What problems does she foresee for herself and her generation?

47. Statement
“Lighting and mobility are the common issues,
getting around the home easily and safely.”
Needs
Product enhances user mobility.
“We look at improvable items, we want to prevent Product ensures safety of the user.
accidents.”
“My team tries to provide comfort to members, so
they can keep their way of life.”
Product makes users more comfortable.
“We tailor or recommendations to the person’s
disabilities, some people are very able-bodied,
some are not.”
Product is adjustable for a wide range of
disabilities.
“A lot of furniture is poorly suited to elderly
people: types of chairs, heights of tables, drawers
which they don’t have the strength to pull out.”
Product picks up the slack for poorly-designed
products and spaces.
“Sometimes my clients can’t afford to implement
the recommendations I can’t make.”
Product cheaper than redesigning the living space.
“The biggest issue I see is loneliness.”
Product connects to user to the people they care
about.
“Every senior needs a lot of care from a caregiver.”
Product provides care equivalent to a caregiver.
“Seniors can’t drive anymore and lose the ability
to go places on their own.”
“People who have loved their homes, who have
gardens they’re attached to, you see that the
home is an expression of who they are, and of the
memories they’ve collected over the years. They
don’t want to leave”
Product enables users to travel independently.
Product enables user to live from home.
“[Seniors] have a different relationship to our
Product makes user feels active and independent.
bodies and health vs the senior citizens now (she is
60, baby boomer). No-one likes to think of
themselves as old, so we ignore the mirror.”

48. Transcript
INTRODUCTION
-Building
- Residential architecture, volunteer for Ashby
Village, she is concerned about aging in place.
-What she does: assessments of people homes,
usually when there’s a specific issue, checklist of
things we are looking for, talk to them about needs,
give them a report of recommendations
SPECIFIC ISSUES
-Lighting is always an issue, accessible lights
-Mobility: an easy pathway into the home, even
sidewalk, stairs of even height, railings/handrails
-Inside the homes: we look at improvable items, we
want to prevent accidents. Provide comfort in
keeping their way of life.
-Doorknobs are difficult for senior citizens
-Bathroom: tiled floor is slippery, grab bars for the shower/bathtub -> getting into and out of the tub
-Always depends on the person -> tailor recommendations to the person’s disabilities, some people are
very able-bodied, some are not
-Kitchen: Type of chair stool, heights and use of drawers. People may not have cabinet lighting, but you
really want that to provide the best lighting.
-“I recently went to a couple’s house, where the man has congenital Parkinson’s… just in terms of
getting around, they wanted to know what to do. Just watching him moving around, was pretty hard.”
--Location: Moving the bedroom to the ground floor -> remodeling the house so that you can stay in
this house for the rest of her life.
--“I haven’t worked with anybody who has a lift or anthing mechanical like that.” Stairs are prohibitive,
ramps are a possibility.
-- FOLLOWUP: ask her to send us the checklist.
DAY IN THE LIFE WALKTHROUGH
 Not just assessments, but I do remodeling too.
 I meet them, ask them if they have any specific needs (ie Parkinson’s)
 From there I do the walkthrough, go thru each room, sometimes with them, or I’ll do it and then
give them an overview of what I’ve seen

49. EXISTING NEEDS NOT MET
--Mobility issue: wheel-chaired senior citizen, she couldn’t get around and her house wasn’t designed
for easy wheelchair access.
- Existing problems: doors, hallways, financial problems wouldn’t let someone expand a doorway
-- One specific suggestion: take the door off its hinges, and replace it with a curtain or a sliding door.
-- Stair-lifts, cost
UNMET SENIOR NEEDS
 Biggest issue: loneliness
 The internet -> “My generation is used to using the computers, but the generation who is 80
now, have a lot of trouble.” Maybe use the computers to ease loneliness (Skype, Facetime) ->
help people to monitor the senior citizens (video cameras, more monitoring)
 Each person really has an individual issues, but universal issues are limited mobility, arthritis,
loneliness, deteriorating sight
 Every senior needs a lot of care -> space for a caretaker
 Access -> accessibility, they can’t drive anymore and lose the ability to go places.
CARE IN THE HOME
 I don’t really do that.
SENIOR EMOTIONAL ELICITIAN
- They’re attached to the home, no-one wants to give up their home and move on to assisted
care or something else.
- “People who have loved their homes who have gardens they’re attached to, you see that the
home is an expression of who they are, and of the memories they’ve collected over the years.
Even downsizing is so hard. Family
- What’s hard: their friends are dying, they feel more alone, how do you keep the connections
going ->
- that’s where Ashby Village is going -> provide connection, helps provide services like driving (to
doctor’s appointments, supermarket, etc).
- I’d prefer a senior co-housing, or a senior community. What I would want: sharing a house with
some other senior citizens, build a little community. And there are people who are doing this…
- Co-housing (esp in Berkeley): people have their own units, and they share group spaces like a
kitchen, dining room, garden. Some people are developing senior co-housing -> the first one
just opened in Nevada. Denmark has a lot of co-housing -> Stay independent, social, mobile
- Assisted living on a small community -> family-sized caregiver, share the love. Almost like a
charter school, a small school.
CURRENT SOLUTIONS
- Changing surfaces, remodeling, handrails -> looking at the macro level (vs having the right can
openers)

50. STORY
-
-
What would make someone move out of their homes?
A woman from Ashby village is renting an apartment, on the top floor of a plaza. She’s lived
there a long time, she wants to stay there. There’s a balcony which faces the street. She goes
shopping, and then she can’t carry the groceries up the steps. She wanted to figure out a way to
get things into her apartment.
Idea: a pulley system for the balcony, a basket.
CLOSING THOUGHTS
- There is a huge market of seniors growing, and someone needs to think about this, ad in
product design. How can you make things that look nice -> idea: luxury goods for senior
citizens. Oxxo, and other things where looks, style, atheistic is important.
- Generation gap: we have a different relationship to our bodies and health vs the senior citizens
now (she is 60, baby boomer). No-one likes to think of themselves as old, so we ignore the
mirror.
- Anything that benefits the elders, benefits everyone else. Why should we pay for ramps? -> You
never know when you’ll be in need of something helpful. Accessibility is useful for lots of people
-> universal design.
- Universal design -> access to everything, from architecture to products. Most people do not
have that access in their homes, but they need to!

51. 3.18.13
Jackie Interview
Location: Jackie’s House
Statement
Needs
“I have medical alert”
The product must have fail-safe backup plans
for worst case scenarios.
“Getting up and down the stairs has become
very difficult”
The product helps users navigate stairways
“I need hired help because they are more
reliable”
The product must be reliable and give the user
confidence that it will always work
“Losing the ability to drive has been very
discouraging”
A product that helps with mobility would be
valued
Reflection
This interview helped me understand the challenges faced by the elderly and changed
how I was thinking about many of the problems we had discussed earlier with the group. I had
never thought about little problems like changing a light bulb or having the mailman leave
packages on the ground. Small maintenance tasks that are out of reach are also an issue.
For our tensegrity chair product I realized I had to think much more about little details
like the size of the buttons to turn on the chair. The buttons to control the chair would have to be
simple and high off the ground.
Interview Transcript (Some responses are summaries of what was actually stated)
Jackie is a member of Ashby Village.
Q: Tell me about Ashby Village. What types of services do they provide?
A: They provide volunteer who help me with a variety of tasks around the house. They also
provide check-in phone calls and they have some activities and classes. Every year they host a
Christmas party, but there aren’t too many events like that since it is hard for seniors to get out of
their homes.
Q: What types of help do you need around you house?
A: I need assistance gardening and piping. I need help around the house with general chores.
Recently an Ashby village volunteer changed a few light bulbs for me and helped me with my
computer.

52. Q: What does your hired help assist you with? How often do they come to your house?
A: My primary helper is a UC Berkeley student who comes twice a week. They help me with
computer issues and grocery shopping.
Q: What are the advantages of having a hired assistant?
A: They are more reliable. I can count of them to come twice a week as well, which is more
often than I can request Ashby village help.
Q: Are there any issues you have had with Ashby village volunteers?
A: Ashby village can be a little slow to match me with a volunteer who is free to help me. Also,
they have no phone service after 5:30 pm and no weekend service. I hear that there is an
emergency line, but I can’t think of an emergency where I would call them over my hired help or
the hospital.
Q: What other types of assistance do you have that enable you to stay in your home?
A: I have medical alert, which would allow me to all for assistance if I fell or needed emergency
help for any other reason. It costs $29/month, but it is absolutely necessary.
Q: Can you tell me about the modifications you have made to your house?
A: I have added handles next to the fridge and around other cabinets and other places in the
kitchen and bedroom where I need help balancing. I also have a walker with a tray so I can place
things on the tray instead of carrying them. There are also added pads under the rugs to make
standing on the floor easier.
Q: What type of challenges do you face living in your home instead of moving to a smaller
retirement community?
A: Having a two story house is a big issue. Getting up and down the stairs has become very
difficult. Driving is also a big problem. Losing the ability to drive greatly restricted my ability to
do many of my favorite activities, like driving to SF to attend social or cultural events. I have not
been able to use BART since the elevators in many stops are very poorly designed. A few stops
have elevators all the way at the end of the station which are very hard to walk to and unsafe
since no one else is over there.
Q: What are you most worried will prevent you from staying in your home?
A: I am afraid of falling. Even if I’m not severely injured, it would force me out of this house
and possibly be life-ending considering my other medical conditions.
Q: What have your friends done in retirement? Do they live in their houses as well or have they
moved into senior-living communities.
A: Actually, all of my friends I can think of at the moment are living in their homes. I have
considered moving to a retirement community since they are so convenient. Everyone admits
that retirement homes are much more convenient, and many of my friends talk about moving into
one, but we all love our homes.

53. Expert Interview with NASA Intelligent Robotics Group, 3/18
The team went to visit the Intelligent Robotics Group at the NASA Ames Research center. We had a
two-hour meeting with researchers who are building the first prototypes of Tenesegrity robots. We
learned a lot about the advantages and limitations of these types of robots, and saw several interesting
mockups and working models. At the end of this document are photos and videos of several different
prototypes.
We met with NASA Researchers Vytas Sunspiral, Adrian Agogino, along with our graduate student
advisor Drew Sablehaus.
Key Points
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
They emphasized there could be a lot of different form factors for robots, although they are
currently pursing balls and snakes, we should not let that limit us.
Vytas really saw tensegrity as mimicking biology: allowing robots to finally be as resilient,
flexible, and robust as human beings. “Tensegrity is best when using nature’s simple solutions
to problems.”
. Per tensegrity-enabled manipulators: stronger manipulators would require more rigid
structures. They suggested attaching traditional robotics manipulators (ie hard) to a soft
tensegrity structure. Strength of materials will always define gripper strength
Key advantages of tensegrity: requires a lot less power, compressible, light-weight, robust vs
traditional hard robotics.
Project is funded by a blue-sky, 10+ year research grant. Basically, they don’t expect the
technology to be feasible for ten year, which definitely makes our job harder!
We could use the modeling software Rhino, combined with the Grasshopper spring modeling
plugin, to model tensegrity. The software is difficult to learn.
Obvious applications from the NASA guys: exoskeleton, prosthetic limbs, and prosthetic knees.
Tensegrity is also great for under-actuated systems: one or two motors can generate many
different structural poses.
Feedback on Top Concepts, Concept Brainstorm
1. Shower - What about a safe and soft bathtub? Tensegrity structure covered by a waterproof
membrane, “inflates” when you get in.
2. Terrain Avoidance system – Use force feedback? Tensegrity is great for an underactuated
system: 2 motors plus distributed loading can handle a wide range of forces.
3. What about deployable tensegrity walkers? Tensegrity ramps? Tensegrity structures with
membranes (like beds and chairs)
4. Rehab for physical therapy, disabilities, and stretching -> a la Chris Finn (quadriplegic)

54. This video demonstrates a tensegrity leg. The way the leg moves inspired our team to think outside the
box for tensegrity motion devices.

55. Tensegrity arm model with a manipulator. This inspired us to look at creating tensegrity that was more
active in its interactions with the environment.

56. This tensegrity model showed how tensegrity can create systems that mimic biology on some level but
are nevertheless fundamentally different. The tensegrity shown above has sufficient freedom in its hips
to allow it to walk without knees.

57. This picture shows the first the sections of a tensegrity snake model under construction at the NASA
lab. The prototype of a tensegrity snake helped to give us an idea of how tensegrity robots could be
constructed in the future.

58. 3.24.13
Joan Home Healthcare Interview Writeup
Introduction
I conducted a phone interview with Joan on March 14. Joan is a 73-year old elderly woman with Stage-4
bone cancer, with a prognosis of 10 years or so. Her husband Carl has mid-stage dementia which over
the years has slowly gotten worse; although his long-term memory is good, he has little short-term
memory and can’t make decisions. They live together in a house, and have a caregiver come every
weekday for about 3 hours.
TODO: Statement -> needs table, expand what’s in the reflection, para. 3
Reflection and Lessons Learned
Going into the interview, I did not think a phone interview would be that useful. I figured that the faceto-face iteraction would be crucial to dig deep and get a meaningful interview. I was pleasantly
surprised, then, when I got a great interview over the phone. I got a lot of useful leads, for example
Sweden and Japan elderly care, and learned a lot about what Joan cared about.
None of my other groupmates could make the interview, so I did it alone. Once again, I found it difficult
to take notes and keep the conversation going at the same time. I wouldn’t hear the last thing she said
because I was writing something down, and lose the thread of her conversation. This interview
definitely reinforced my preference for pair interviews. I also realized I preferred to take notes on paper,
versus using the computer. I tend to make a lot of arrows, and underline/circle points to emphasize
them, and that’s really impossible using Word.
I think the most important thing I learned from this interview is how important staying active was to
Joan. Staying active ties well with the mobility and independence needs we already identified. There
was a great quote she had, about how Joan “wanted to stay the same person,” even as she aged. So
another need we can spin off that is comfort. Provide comfort to the user, provide a sense of habit or
constancy, security, a daily routine, and all the emotions which go along with those: satisfaction,
contentment, low stress and worry, calm, and ultimately happiness.
Raw Notes (pseudo-transcript)
Helper Carlos comes every weekday for about 3 hours. -> checks husband to take his meds, helps him
get dressed, put on his hearing aids, make his bed, do the laundry every day, go to the grocery store.
Cooking is difficult, they usually make simple meals. She can still drive.
Their daughter lives with them, but is gone on weekdays; she is around on the weekends. They plan to
Main problem: “There are22 stairs to the front door:” (with railings). They find it very difficult to walk up
the stairs. There’s a walkway along the side of the house which is much easier, but they need to install
railings. Luckily, they have the money to remodel that side of the house and add railings, so they don’t
fall.
They also plan to remodel their basement to turn into a bedroom for a live-in caregiver, as they get
older. Short-term, their daughter will live there and enjoy more privacy.

59. They tried living in a nursing home (senior housing facility) for six months and absolutely hated it. They
had a tiny dingy room for two people, and had to eat in a dining room with fluorescent lighting. They
ate with people who were much more disabled than them, and they didn’t like that. It wasn’t pleasant.
“We don’t want to live with old people ever again.” It was very clinical; they lived in the independent
living section of the home, they didn’t even want to try the assisted living section. There was an
atmosphere of old people; the attendants ranged from boring to awful, and the home did not provide
the active lifestyle they preferred.
Ashby Village provides volunteers to do household work, and a social network: those are the two things
she liked most. When her health turned bad, she had a support network to turn to, find doctors and
caregivers through the service. They change the batteries in the smoke detectors, lightbulbs, and even
fixed her computer, since she has no idea how it works.
Something Joan doesn’t want to handle is medical boxes; she lets the caregiver do those. She didn’t
want to take responsibility for important things, so she had the caregiver do it. She’s tried to provide
independent help for her husband, so that if she grows ill he will be okay.
Talking more about her husband and his dementia, he really needs help with household tasks. “The
world isn’t really set up for old people.” For example, last week he fell, and knocked over a table
overflowing with books and a wine glass. The books flew everywhere and the glass shattered. She had
to clean it up, but she wished a caregiver was there to do it.
She refused to use a walker after her time in the hospital; now she uses a cane. Being active is very
important to her, but she considers herself an introvert and doesn’t mind being a homebody.
The most important thing in Joan’s life is to have a social support network of people. Friends and
family. She said that it’s important that “you’re the same person,” even as you age. She’s traveled a lot
and been very active throughout her life, and she wants to stay active even as she age’s. She can drive,
she can walk a mile, it just takes her 40 minutes.
The most important aspect of healthcare for Joan is to stay with doctors who she has a relationship
with. Someone she knows, someone who knows her and she can rely on. She specifically chooses
young doctors who will probably outlive her, to keep that relationship. Some of her friends can’t pick
and choose doctors so easily, like in Kaiser, but they are still great.
She is very lucky because she has money put aside to pay for remodeling and revamping the house.
She has friends stuck in nursing homes, sharing rooms with people they hate, relying on medicare and
Medicaid. In other countries (Europe + Japan), the government pays for much more elderly care:
housekeeping, cooking, facilities for the blind. Bike lanes are more safe so that you can ride a bike even
at 70. Her cousin is a 90-year old man in Sweden who lives in his own apartment, a man comes to his
house and cleans it, and helps him with anything he needs, and the government pays for it. It’s
important to stay with the friends you have, instead of being moved a hundred miles away to a nursing
home.
Products they use at home: they’ve made the bathroom more handicap accessible, adding railings to
everything. Railings on stairway. With money it’s easy.
Joan is terrified that she will become blind, because reading, watching movies, and everything else she
loves requires her to have good vision.

60. 4.12.13
DALi Project Lecture
Location: 3110 Etcheverry Hall
The DALi Project: Devices for Assisted Living
Exploring New Frontiers for Assisted Living Devices
The European Robotics Forum
Lecture by: Luigi Palopoli
Objective:
Support people with moderate impairments.
Why:
Mobility give elders an autonomous life which in tern combats other negative affects of aging
How:
CNP (Cognitive Navigation Prosthesis)
- Flexible and Non-Intrusive Solution
- Autonomous sensing and cognitive abilities
What:
Start with a walker because it is already accepted (no stigma) and it is a simple platform to work
off of. The first part of the project is to develop a walker with navigation assistance
Where: (What environments will this work in?)
- Semi-Structured Environments
- Environments where the topology is well known
- Well-Lit environments – the first generation sensors will need light
Examples of Environments that fit these criteria:
Large malls and large airports fit these criteria because they are confusing for people, stressful,
but relatively controlled environment for testing the robot. Also, help is readily available in malls
and airports, so a malfunction of the prototype wouldn’t be life-threatening.
User Case: Anna (76yrs old) wants to go shopping. She will encounter groups of people at the
mall. The technical solution will be to have haptic handles and to gently apply the brake on one
wheel to turn her in the correct direction. The robot will also detect stress and suggest calm
routes to take or suggest taking a break.
Challengers: User Acceptance and market analysis
- Talk to users
- Low fidelity prototypes
- Match user requirements with market needs
Final Price must be less than 3,000 euros. This limits the technology so it is a practical project.
User Needs Assessment Process:

61. 4. User Acceptance
1. Analysis of Requirements
2. Tech Solutions
3. User Tests
User
Acceptance
Analaysis of
Requirements
User Test
Technical
Solution
Sensing Algorithms:
- Stereo camera pair for 3D perception
- Kinect sensors
Camera:
Seimens technology to generate point cloud of the surrounding space
Sensing:
Detecting and tracking. The use is this requires large amounts of computing power, which will
increase the cost of the device.
Cognitive Engine:
- Modeling the environment
- Planning motion in real time
- Anomaly detection
Global & Local planning

62. - People HATE being corrected too often
Global Planning
- Create a heat map of activity & plan route around these area
- Remember common places and plan the same route every time
Reflection
It was very interesting to learn about a research project in the field we have been working
on ourselves. Professor Palopoli had addressed some of the challenges we met during our project
in very intelligent ways. For example, in our project we were concerned about user acceptance
and our product having a social stigma, and Professor Palopoli decided to build his project off of
an existing solution: the walker. This way he ensured the product would be socially accepted and
have the best chance of reaching users. Also, it was very interesting to see how Professor
Palopoli addressed technical challenges with a low budget. The sensors he put on his assisted
walker were stock components or components existing from other products – like the Microsoft
Kinect sensor. Using two off-the-shelf cameras, with advanced software allowed the project to
stay on-budget, but still provide the desired functionality.
When continuing work on our project we will think about the user needs assessment flow
chart and think more carefully about the likelihood of user acceptance.

63. 4.24.13
Transforming Health Care with Technology
Location: 310 Sutardja Dai
Transforming Healthcare with Technology: A Model Based Approach
NSF Program Director and Researcher
Health Care Crisis:
 16% of GDP
 US Spends more money, gets lower results
 Dependency ratio is changing: Baby boomers are retiring
Needed Changes:
The Healthcare system needs to change from hospital centric to patient centric system.
Patient centric means the patient is the center of the health care system instead of each individual
hospital. In a patient centric system, the patient can go to any hospital and doctors can view data
on the type of care they have previously had and assess what they need. Patients themselves can
also track their health through online technology and be more informed as to the type of care
they need.
Challenges: Technology outpaces research.
A research project on patient-centric technology (for use in the medical field) started in 2005 and
finished in 2011. By then the iPhone and iPad had been invented, making the entire project
obsolete before it was published.
Pasteur’s Quadrant:
Pasteur was an understanding inspired & application inspired scientist. Many other scientists and
inventers are mostly understanding inspired, for example physicist. Many others, like inventors
are application inspired and are not as concerned with understanding the theory behind their
inventions. The next phase of research in healthcare models must be in Pasteur’s quadrant:
understanding inspired & application inspired.
Causes of Mortality:
Genetic – 30%
Behavioral – 40%
Model Patients Behaviors:
 Economics
 Epidemiology
 Robotics
Big Data:
Doctors and the government want to learn how to use Big Data. We have an incredible
amount of data about healthcare treatments that we can devise data-driven treatments. One of the

64. challenges about devising data driven treatments is find the proper thresholds for the huge data
sets, then applying that to individuals.
Since the data is about a large population it can be difficult to make reliable predicts for
tends for each individual.
Big Data example:
Google predicts epidemics before the CDC. This is a data source that is not being fully
capitalized on.
Reflection
It was interesting to hear about a new type of healthcare research project. Most of the
research I have read about involves developing a specific technology or specific product. The
research presented in this talk was analyzing data to develop a better overall healthcare system.
This didn’t directly apply to our product, but it is very good to keep the overall healthcare system
in mind when making our product.

65. 4.26.13
Joan, 73-yo w/ Stage-4 Bone Cancer
Introduction
Our team first met Joan in a phone interview, through our Ashby Village network. We interviewed her
again, in-home, to get her feedback on our two prototypes. We demoed both our “Lifting Chair” and
“Social Bot” high-fidelity prototypes. We also discussed the problems she faced in her home, and
“ideal” versions of our prototypes.
Joan is a 73-year old retired English teacher with Stage-4 bone cancer, with a prognosis of 10 years or
so. She lives in a home with her husband Carl who has mid-stage dementia. A doctor recently
diagnosed him with Alzheimer’s, which means he will become significantly worse. Currently,, although
his long-term memory is good, he has little short-term memory and can’t make decisions.
Joan uses a cane and walker. She lived in a senior living center for 6 months, in the unassisted section,
after she fell and received hairline fractures in her leg bone. She hated it: “everyone there was very
disabled, it made me feel very old [laughter].” Her husband had a stroke and receives physical therapy
twice a week.
She owns exclusively Apple products: she has an iPhone, an iPad, and a iMac. She prefers her iMac,
since she can touchtype. She bought her husband a “senior-oriented” phone with big buttons, but he
never learned how to use it. She plays Words With Friends (you go Grandma!). The first ten minutes of
every meeting with other AV members, is a gripe session about technology: “my frustrations with
tech.”
Lifting Chair Feedback
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If the lifting chair was mobile, that would be especially useful for her husband. Her husband has
problems both standing up and sitting down.
She lived in a senior living center for 6 months, and hated it. The home had a motorized
recliner, which would help you stand up by actuating the chair into an upright position. The first
time her husband used it, he didn’t realize what the remote did, and the chair threw him out of
the chair (he was very surprised)! After that, they just disconnected the motor.
Interesting idea: what if you used your iPhone to actuate the chair? Then you could get
feedback, and never be surprised...
She sees a physical therapist, who teaches her the proper way to stand up and sit down.
Interesting that there is a “form” to such a simple task.
She likes walkers, she doesn’t mind that they look super-dorky. In fact, she prefers walkers to
canes, because the walker is a little shield for her against incoming traffic. “I like that the walker
puts a cage around me so people don’t bump into me.”
Joan would prefer a simple, portable, and foldable walker. Issues with current walkers: too
heavy is a big one, there are walkers with seats she doesn’t like. She doesn’t like walekrs with
locking brakes. Public places usually have seats, so she doesn’t need a walker with a seat; she
would prefer to have a more portable one. She uses a “ski” walker attachment for hardwood
floors so she doesn’t tear up the floor.
Possible improvements to our chair:

66. ◦
◦
◦
Slow motor control
Double confirm remote, or some other form of confirmation/AV feedback
Possibly useful if portable/transportable
Social Ball Feedback
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-
First reaction: “What a wonderful cat toy! If you added a laser pointer my cat would love it.”
Trololololol.
We had a hard time explaining the concept to her, she didn’t really understand how she could
we use it. We tried to explain it to her as a “mobile Siri,” in which the ball follows you around
and uses voice technology to interact in an interesting way.
Whenever she has a medical problem, she googles it, looks it up in WebMD and MayoClinic.
How coudld we integrate those features into our social ball?
Medical crises:
Her husband had a stroke. He was sitting reading, and realized he couldn’t reach over to
grab the Coke he was drinking. He calls her over, and she realizes “Honey, you’re having a
stroke.” She calls an ambulance, and rides with him to Alta Bates. He receives very prompt
medical attention. What would of happened if there was no-one to call an ambulance for
him?...
Her husband had undiagnosed pneumonia. Her husband fell getting out of bed, and didn’t
have the strength to get up. She tried to help him up, but couldn’t. She calls the fire
department, who help him get up. The EMT realizes that he is coughing, and takes him to
the hospital. He actually has pneumonia, which causes his weakness.
Lessons Learned:
We noticed a big difference between our first interview with Joan, over the phone, and
our second interview, in-home. She was more reticent in talking about her personal problems in
person, which surprised us. We thought the phone interview would be more impersonal, but
instead the detachment helped her be more open and willing to talk about sensitive issues.
Joan had trouble understanding what exactly our “Social Ball” prototype would do. She
couldn’t understand why she would want to buy it. Her reaction reinforced our need to think
about the experience an elderly citizen would have with that concept, and it’s compelling
selling points. What sort of new experience are we providing, and what problems are we trying
to solve (think about our initial need of Emotional Connection).

67. Cheryl Crane 2nd Interview [Prototype Feedback]
April 30th, 2013
Statement



Tensegrity Chair Feedback
 Must carry user to a standing
position, not just upright.
 Must be small and portable.
 Have sturdy arms to hold onto
while actuating to standing
position.
 Add arms that elevate the user
slightly to complete the standing
motion
 Model after Lazy Boy products
Tensegrity Ball Feedback`
 Voice-activated
 LifeAlert feature in addition to the
social features
 It can not be a tripping hazard so
precautions in its pathing code
would be extremely important to
viability.
 Lack of space in many elderly
people’s homes must be taken
into account
 If user is in an emergency and
can’t speak, alternative features
must be included such as clapping
to call the ball.
 Ball could be a medication
dispenser
 Tell the user how to crawl if they
have fallen and take the right
steps in alerting the authorities.
Elderly problems to consider:
 Space and storage
 Memory
 Lights, sounds and movement can
disorient
Analysis
Cheryl seemed to emphasize that the tensegrity
chair would need to complete the standing motion
to the point where the user was actually standing
and not just in an upright position.
The tensegrity chair would be greatly improved
with sturdy arms that would allow for the user to
use both their upper and lower body strength to
stand up. Arms that could lift the user slightly
could also assist with the fully upright position
desired.
The tensegrity ball features need to be defined
more. However, some features that may be added
could be voice control instead of remote control
and a LifeAlert feature that would contact the
authorities in an emergency even when the user
can’t talk.
The dangers of the tensegrity ball also need to be
considered, as it could be a tripping hazard in the
elderly people’s homes.
We need to account for the problems elderly
people face such as the space in their homes, their
memory loss, and disorienting things that may
pose a health hazard to them
Reflection
Cheryl agreed to meet up with us once again after we finished narrowing down our design
prototypes to the tensegrity ball and chair. Going into this interview we mainly wanted feedback on the

68. prototypes we had already designed in the last few weeks. We went through her credentials again and
her relation as a market stakeholder. She then went into detail and addressed the main problems that
elderly people faced and what kind of thoughts and considerations go through her mind when
designing their homes for them. One of these issues was storage and space issues within their homes.
The other issue that she touched upon was that kitchens and bathrooms were the most dangerous
areas within the elderly persons’ home.
She gave us feedback on the tensegrity chair. She touched upon a similar Lazy-Boy like product
her father used since he had Parkinson’s to help him get up from a sitting position. She said the key
points would be to make sure there were sturdy arms as her father had a strong upper body and could
pull himself up and that a combination of upper and lower body strength aspects would help the user
the most in getting up. Also, the product her father used did not extend its standing motion enough and
left her father in a slightly upright position, but not fully standing. This would be an important point to
focus on in our tensegrity chair. This could maybe be remedied through the chairs arms pushing the
person up slightly at the end of its motion.
There was a lot more feedback and ideas produced in the second part of the prototype
feedback on the tensegrity ball since its purpose and form weren’t completely set as the tensegrity
chair’s. Cheryl advised there be a voiced command like Siri that would be able to call people/text and
overall just connect the user to other close people to them. She noted that the features need to be
more defined before we address other people for feedback on the product. The ball also might serve as
a tripping hazard to the elderly users. This gave us the perspective that the ball might cause more harm
than good. This however, could be remedied through a pathing system similar to that that they use in
car parking systems where the ball avoids obstacles and stays a certain distance away from the user
constantly.
In the end, Cheryl related our project similar to that of a movie Robot and Frank that we should
watch to give ourselves a more general overview of what we are trying to accomplish, enhancing
elderly people’s lives. Overall, this interview has given us the perspective to continue advancing the
tensegrity chair concept because we have already solidified the features of the chair and the user needs
it would fulfill. Also, it seems much simpler to receive feedback on a prototype that is more less
freeform and already has its features defined.

69. May 1, 2013
Location: Shirley’s House
Statement
Needs
“I want to live at home as long as possible”
Independence is very important.
“Getting up and down the stairs was very
difficult right after my hip surgery”
The product helps users navigate stairways
“I have hired help for cleaning the house but
not gardening”
The product should help people do what they
enjoy and reduce their workload on tasks that
they do not enjoy.
With regards to technology
“I’m a realist, it’s here and it’s happening”
Some users are very accepting of technological
solutions.
“Pre training was great for my hip surgery”
Users need to be trained before they get their
robots.
“The chair would have helped me stand and sit User was interested in a tensegrity chair.
before my surgery and during my recovery”
“You should interview my fiend about the
chair he could really use it”
Showed the ability to market by word of mouth
and excitement for the product.
Reflection
Shirley was very excited to interview with us. She planned for and looked to the future. When
she bought her house years ago she planned and bought a house that would work for her as she
aged. Her goal is to live in her home as long as possible. Shirley kept up well with technology
and was getting an tablet soon.
Lifting Chair Prototype Feedback
The chair would be more helpful if it was light and portable. Sitting in low and or soft seats was
not possible after her hip operation. One of her friends had a disease which prevented him from
easily standing up. He uses an existing standing product but still requires help to stand all of the
way up. She thought that a device that prevented falling and picked users all of the way up
would be a very attractive product.

70. Appendix B: User Needs Hierarchy
4.21.2013
Hierarchy of User Needs
Intro
Our user needs changed throughout the semester. We put together an original list of the top 5 needs
for the midterm tradeshow. After feedback, however, we realized that the needs were too broad. To fix
this, we chose our top 3 needs and focused on a particular problem associated with them.
Process
We developed these needs directly from users. After an interview, we would write a brief summary of
the interview, lessons learned, and statement-needs analysis based on the transcript. After the first 10
or so interviews, we analyzed the combined statement-needs results, and chose our most important
needs: this list was our original needs list (around the time of the MT).
Once we had 20 interviews, we analyzed the interviews again, to construct our final hierarchy of user
needs (shown below). At this point, we had shifted the focus of the project from the broad area of
“home healthcare for the elderly and disabled” to a more specific “help elderly in every-day tasks.” Our
needs hierarchy reflects this fact.
Needs ordered in hierarchy based both on user needs, and project feasibility
Top User Need (targeted by final Tensegrity chair product)
1. Independence: empower seniors to live the lives they want
 Lots of problems with doing simple tasks, makes seniors helpless and powerless, loss of control
they once had
Primary User Needs (targeted by other prototypes)
2. Mobility: keep seniors active and engaged in the world through mobility
3. Social Connection: connect seniors to people they care about
Secondary User Needs (useful needs we didn’t directly address, but thought about in the design
process)

71. 4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Reliability: 6-sigma+ reliability
Comfort
Compensate for poorly-designed environment (tables too high, chairs uncomfortable)
Dignity (or lack of humiliation, embarrassment, shame)
Care-giver assistance
Adaptable (or customizable)
Mental health + emotional support
Our First List User Needs (Peer Feedback)
In our original collection of user needs, we chose a broad assortment of the most common elderly and
disabled users faced in their day-to-day lives. We showed these needs to our peers and the professor.
Peer Feedback – Needs Hierarchy:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Independence
Reliability
Mobility
24-hour care
Social Interaction
Our Updated User Needs (MT Tradeshow)
By the midterm tradeshow, we had refined our user needs and incorporated several new interviews
specifically in the elderly healthcare space.
We got some great feedback from Michael Barry at discussion: he had recently conducted a massive
study on seniors and shower accidents. He basically pointed out that our needs were too broad: in
essence, every one of our needs could be a stand-alone product. After this feedback, we decided to drill
down into a core user need, independence.
MT Tradeshow – Needs List:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Promotes a more active lifestyle
Maintains dignity
Adaptable
Compensates for poorly designed environments
Relieves caregiver burden

72. Appendix C: Selection of Concepts Generated, Organized by Theme

78. Appendix D: Screening Matrix
Appendix E: Scoring Matrix

80. Appendix F: Exoskeleton Finger Prototype – In-Depth
The Tensegrity-Inspired Exoskeleton Concept
Problem Statement
Many tensegrity designs have dozens of intertwining elastic elements, which are exposed to the
environment. The elastic elements are vulnerable to breaking with wear, or being accidentally cut.
Additionally, they could even prove a hazard to the user if the user were to get tangled in the elastic
elements. The proposed solution is to enclose the elastic elements to protect them, and the user, while
maintaining all the benefits of tensegrity technology.
To model our exoskeleton tensegrity concept we decided to 3D print a finger, which would provide a
proof of concept of our technology on a small scale.
Safety
Tensegrity robotics are know for their safety because they are soft robots, meaning they are flexible
and deform if they collide with a person. Our exoskeleton tensegrity concept also has this key feature.
In a collision with a person the hard exoskeleton surface deforms since each hard segment is held
together with only internal elastic elements.
How it Works
Figure 1 shows the assembly of the three-jointed exoskeleton finger. The finger is hollow to allow the
elastic elements to run through the center to hold the three joints together. In more advanced
prototypes a motor would be attached to the elastic elements allowing the finger to be manipulated.

81. Drawings and Pictures
Figure 1: Original Sketch in Design Journal
Our Process
After sketching our original ideas we made a 3D model in SolidWorks to better visualize the concept.
Our 3D CAD models and dimensioned 2D drawings are shown below.

82. Figure 2: CAD Assembly
Figure 3: CAD 2D Side View

83. Figure 4: CAD Detail of the Finger Tip
Our Process
After our 3D CAD model was completed we felt the best way to experiment further with the idea was to
rapid prototype the model and try assembling it. The parts were rapid prototyped out of ABS plastic
using a fused deposition process. Below are pictures of the finished rapid prototyped part after it was
assembled.
Figure 5: Photo of 3D Printed Model

84. Figure 6: Photo of 3D Printed Model Showing Bending Motion
Figure 7: Close-up of Elastic Element Holding Two Segments Together
Figure 8: Photo of Elastic Element Attached to Finger Tip

85. Our Process
After studying the outcome of our rapid prototyped part, we went back to the designing improvements
of the tensegrity exoskeleton concept. Figure 10 shows the problems we found with our first prototype
and some potential solutions. Figure 11 gives other potential applications of our idea.

86. Figure 10: Problems with Prototype 1, and Potential Solutions

87. Figure 11: Sketches of Other Potential Applications of Exoskeleton Tensegrity

88. Conclusion
Overall the prototype served its role as an effective way to communicate the technical concept
we invented. We decided not to continue developing this concept because there wasn’t a way to
incorporate it into any of the user needs we found. However, we still believe it is a valuable idea that
could be incorporated into future robotics.
Lessons Learned
We learned how to create a CAD model of a prototype for rapid prototyping in the student
machine shop. Unfortunately, we found that rapid prototyping was more expensive and more time
consuming than we had previously envisioned. However, the final result was still worth the effort.

89. Appendix G: Social Ball Prototype – In-Depth
The Tensegrity Social Ball
Problem Statement and User Needs
Develop a portable and intuitive mechanism to simply connect elderly users to the people they care about.
The Tensegrity Ball prototype targets the following user needs (from Midterm):
 Social interaction
 Independence
 Mobility
The prototype enables elderly users who would otherwise be unable to socially engage with their family,
friends, and peers to safely have a conversation without ever leaving the home.
How it Works
For our initial functional prototype, we placed a radio-controlled motorized car inside a soft, inflated
beach ball. In this way, the ball would be moved around its environment by a user, controlling the car’s
actuation. We drew parallels for our initial prototype from hamster balls. In our initial prototype, the
cheap RC car we chose was not powerful enough to move the ball, along with several other problems.
In our next iteration of prototypes, we would add social components, perhaps by adding a smartphone,
which has speakerphone and video chat functionality. We would need to develop a way to safely attach an
iPhone to the beach ball, or whatever ball membrane we use in version 2.
FIGURE 1: HTTP://WWW.FREEWEBS.COM/AIMEEHATTON/BALL.BMP

90. Our Process:
Our first ideas for the social ball are shown in Figure 2 and Figure 3.
Figure 2: Initial Sketches

91. Figure 3: Initial Ideas for the Purpose of a Social Ball

92. User Experience Mind Map

93. Prototype V1
In this prototype, we tried to put a cheap RC car into
the beach ball. We cut a hole in the ball, inserted the
car, and patched the hole with packing tape.
Lessons from prototype V1: Unfortunately, the cheap
RC car we bought had several problems. Firstly, the car
was not powerful enough to move the ball. Secondly,
the RF received was very weak and had a short range,
which limited the practical usefulness of the car.
Finally, the car needed to be charged every three
minutes, which combined with carefully cutting and
retaping the ball gave us a two minute window of
functionality before a recharge was necessary.
For our next prototype, we needed to find a better RC
car which can easily move the ball, has good radio
range, and a long charge. Another option was to choose
FIGURE 3: PROTOTYPE V1
a different cheap source of locomotion. We also
thought about a better way to attach the actuation
source inside the ball. Cutting open the ball manually, and retaping after, is both time-consuming and
inefficient.
Prototype V2
Armed with the lessons we learned from the first prototype, we ordered a bigger, better RC car with a
longer battery life, and a larger beach ball. We carefully cut the ball, and put the car in. This model
worked much better, check out a youtube video of a test of this V2 prototype.
Lessons from prototype V2:
With this version, we finally emulated the basic functionality of an actuated Tensegrity ball: it moves
around, and is “autonomous” if we pretend the RC operator doesn’t exist. People were still confused that
a beach ball was moving around, however. We needed to mask the beach-ball nature of the ball, and make
it look more like a robot aesthetically.
Prototype V3
We spray-painted the beach ball a metallic blue color, to make the ball look more like a robot.
Unfortunately, the paint did not dry correctly on the plastic, and became tacky. As we rolled the ball
around, it collected enormous amounts of dirt and trash from the ground, which made it look much worse
than the V2 prototype. Ultimately, we scratched this version, bought a new beach ball, and revert to V2.

94. User Feedback
We demonstrated our V2 prototype to several different elderly users. People had a lot of trouble
understanding what exactly the product would do, especially since we didn’t completely know ourselves.
One senior commented that “that thing would be a great cat toy.” Another immediately disliked it,
because she “knew [she] would trip on that thing.”
From our user feedback we realized that to truly communicate our concept, we would need to
devote a lot of time to imagining the user experience. We would probably need to brainstorm the
functionality and features of the device, and go through another concept selection and refinement process.
Ultimately, because of these time constraints and the practicality of the social ball, we decided to
put the social ball idea on hold. Our final prototype instead was the Tensegrity chair prototype.

95. Appendix H: Tensegrity Chair Prototype – In-Depth
The Tensegrity Chair Assist
Problem Statement
As patients lose strength due to aging and related health issues they start to have a difficult time
with the simple parts of their daily routine. Specifically, seniors often have difficulty sitting down and
standing up from their chair.
Our Solution
Our product will assist seniors in sitting down and standing up from their chair. The tensegrity chair assist
device will gives users:
 The freedom to walk and sit were they want.
 The independence to go through their day without needing help.
Additionally, since users can easily sit down and stand up they are encouraged to get up and walk around
more often.
How it Works
The tensegrity chair assist device will ease users down into their seat and also help lift them up
out of it. The chair improvement will provide the minimum assistance required by the users to give them
as much exercise as possible. Also the soft deformable nature of the tensegrity structure will cushion
otherwise hard chair surfaces and reduce strain on the users back. The tensegrity chair improvement will
lower its users by lengthening its tension members and deforming under their weight. Then to help them
stand the tension members will tighten to help lift the chairs occupant up.
Because of the limitations of existing tensegrity technology our prototype was made out of
readily available materials to simulate the functionality of potential production models. Our fully skinned
prototype, shown in Figure 1, gives some idea as to the aesthetics of the final model. Figure 2 shows the
working components of our prototype. Although they are not tensegrity they provide an example of our
prototyping technique to model theoretical technology.
Safety
The tensegrity chair improvement improves user safety passively by creating a more ergonomic sitting
environment.
Our Process

96. As with every prototype, our first step was to sketch our initial idea. Our very first sketch is shown in
Figure 1. Next we built our first prototype to display our concept, which is shown in Figures 2 and 3.
Figure 1: Original Sketch
Figure 2: Seat Action of the first Prototype
Figure 3: Top View of First Prototype
Our Process 2

97. After building our first prototype we took it around to our interviews and collected extensive user
feedback.
User Feedback

Shirley was very interested in the potential of new technology to help seniors sit and stand up from
their chairs. She immediately thought of a friend she thought might use the product and referred us to
him for an interview.
o

Shirley thought the most important part of the product would be to lift the user vertically into
standing position. She said she had seen previous “lift” types products that push the user forward in
the chair, but not up into standing position.
o

We need to watch out for the senior technology learning curve. Although Joan was pretty techsavvy, her husband had no idea how to use a cell phone; this situation is pretty representative of
her friends. For example, our social ball concept needs to be very intuitive, or seniors just won’t
use (and buy) it.
Joan’s husband was injured because he didn’t realize he was activating the motorized chair in which
he was sitting. End result: they disconnected the motor.
o

Because of Joan’s feedback we focused on light weighting our final prototype so that seniors
could carry it with them.
All of our interviewees wanted training in any technology that we would deliver.
o

This lead us to create our final CAD prototype that emulated a four bar mechanism instead of
simply hinging at the front.
Joan thought the tensegrity power lift chair could be very useful if it was light enough to be carried
around and used on chairs and benches when seniors are out of their house. In their house seniors can
have extra cushions on their chair, railings, their walker sitting in front of their chair or simply take
their time in standing up. In public places seniors have difficulty because the bench seat may be too
low and others who are in a rush make it difficult for them to stand up.
o

We can market our products through networks of senior citizens.
We need to offer AV feedback, allow easy experimentation and exploration, and be forgiving of
mistakes as seniors learn to use our product.
During our final presentation, Yael mentioned that elderly people often develop sores from sitting
still for too long.

98. o
Our tensegrity lift assist can easily incorporate pressure-release technology, which tilts the user
to shift their weight.
Our Process
After our user feedback, we constructed our final prototype (Figure 4) and a 3D computer model of
another version that was suggested during our user feedback stage (Figure 5).
Figure 4: Picture of our Final Prototype
Figure 5: Four-Bar Final CAD

99. Figure 6: Interview with Shirley Feedback about Chair

100. Figure 7a: Interview with Joan Feedback about Chair

101. Figure 7b: Interview with Joan Feedback about Chair

102. Figure 8: Final Presentation Feedback about Tensegrity Chair Assist
Conclusion:
We believe the tensegrity chair will assist many elderly users. The product is a simple, effective
application of tensegrity technology, which utilizes all the inherent advantages of tensegrity technology.

103. Appendix I: Triple Bottom Line Analysis
Economic Analysis
Price of comparable items:




Wheelchair $250 and up. [1]
Caregiver $18 and up per hour. [2]
$26,000 per year for service four hours per day.
US nursing home $76,680 per year. [3]
Market size:
In 2008 there were 38,690,169 seniors in the US, which is 12.7% of the population [4]. (This
counts seniors as people over 65 years old). Assuming 10% of seniors would be interested in purchasing
a tensegrity assist chair, that would provide 3.8 million potential customers. We will assume we could
advertise to 90% of potential customers through AARP, and other senior organizations over a 5-year
period. Of the customers who see advertising, 20% are estimated to purchase the product within this 5year time span. This gives us 684,000 units sold over five years. Annualized, the sales are 136,800 units,
or $20.52 million a year if the unit is priced at $150. This would make for a significant size company.
With the approximated costs of $75 per unit, expenditures would be $10.26 million on hardware and
assembly. Without considering overhead, the company would have $10.26 million in profits.
Next we will estimate overhead costs. The company would have 30 employees working in
design, engineering, support, and HR at an average salary of $80,000 per year. This would mean a total
of $2.4 million in annual employee salaries. Next we will assume $2.6 million in miscellaneous overhead
costs. This will include building space for employees, factory buildings and other miscellaneous or
unexpected costs.
Although these numbers seem optimistic, medical device companies have extremely high
profit margins since the US puts so much money into medical care. This device is extremely low-priced
for the medical industry, so it is likely many seniors would be likely to purchase the product to try it out.
This five-year analysis is enough to justify the long-run economic viability of the company. There will be
50 million seniors by the year 2020, so the 10 or 20-year outlook for the company looks even more
profitable.

104. Estimated Annual Money Streams
Revenue
Marginal Cost
Overhead
per Unit
$150
$75
Profits
Aggregate
$20,520,000
($10,260,000)
($5,000,000)
$5,260,000
Will consumers pay $150 for the device?
We estimate that the chair could eliminate a one hour midday caretaker visit over a six month
period were the user is strong enough to walk but might need some assistance to stand. The chair
would save users over $3,000 in a six month period. Further use and the facilitation of a certified
secondary market would lead to greater savings for consumers and an increased market size. This brief
analysis shows the chair pays for itself, so we expect users would purchase the device at this price.
Design for the Environment
Introduction
Along with economic and social concerns, environmental considerations are a top priority in the
design process of our product. As a medical company it is essential that we are strongly responsible and
act in an ethical way towards our users and the environment. Prospective investors and customers will
be pleased with our commitment to environmental goals, which in turn furthers the economic viability
of our company.
Product Lifecycle
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Production
Distribution
Use
Recovery
Production
1. Production
Our prototype can be made of sustainable materials. To be considered sustainable, materials
must be recyclable and the raw materials must be produced in an environmentally sensitive way.
2. Distribution
Besides using sustainable materials, our product can be manufactured in a sustainable way.
Since our product will be relatively high value and be used in the medical field, it can be manufactured
in the United States, and potentially the Bay Area. There is strong precedent for medical device
manufacturing in the Bay Area. Although manufacturing in the US can have higher cost than
manufacturing in Asia, there will be a strong return on our investment. Consumers highly value medical
products that are safe and are willing to pay more for them. Manufacturing in the United States reduces
the carbon footprint of our company by reducing shipping.

105. 3. Use
During use the machine will draw electric power from the grid. However, it will have a positive
contribution to the environment by reducing the travel required of caretakers.
4. Recovery
The tensegrity structure minimizes wear and increases product life. The increased life will enable
the creation of a certified secondary market. This will enable the distribution of our product to users
who would be priced out of owning new versions, while reducing end of life waste.
Life Cycle Analysis
The following information details the environmental impacts of the different parts and life cycle of our
product. Using the online application SustainableMinds, we were able to estimate the value of our
product’s environmental impact.
Using Common Materials
Parts









Cotton – for covering the interior of the product for aesthetic appeal
Polypropylene – to act as a case/enclosure for the bottom of the product
Steel – from the actuators and for the rods
Copper – from the actuators as well as connecting all the electrical parts together
Ferrite – magnets inside actuators
Polystyrene – foam padding
Polyamide 6 – Nylon cables for the tensegrity structure
Printed wired circuit board (Leaded)
o Resistors
o Transistors
o Capacitors
Rechargeable NiMH battery
Use Breakdown

Power
o Power consumption used to charge battery  Assuming that 2 hours a day is used to
charge the battery and 2190 hours of use for the life of the product, we get .002kW/hr
End of Life


End of Life was determined assuming that the entire product was sent off to a landfill
Some of the parts only had one choice for its end of life scenario
o Cotton, surface mount circuit board, resistor, and battery had a choice of only recycling
Transportation Breakdown (Assuming the company is located in the Bay Area, and the customer
resides in Berkeley, CA)

All electronics (surface mount pcb (not PB-free), resistors, capacitors, transistors)
o From China

106. 







NiMH rechargeable battery
o From China
Nylon Cables from Polyamide 6
o From China
Polystyrene Foam
o From China
Polypropylene plastic body
o From China
Cotton
o From Georgia
Ferrite
o From China
Steel
o From China
Copper
o From China
Using Environmentally Friendly Materials for a Reasonable Price
Parts










Organic Cotton – To cover the product for aesthetic appeal
Carbonized Bamboo – As the casing for the product
Steel – From the actuators
Copper – From the actuators and to wire all electrical components together
Ferrite – Magnets from the actuators
Polyurethane – Memory Foam for padding
Bamboo – For rods
Recycled PET – As cables
Printed wired circuit board (Lead-free)
o Resistors
o Transistors
o Capacitors
Rechargeable Li-ion Battery
Use Breakdown

Power
o Power consumption used to charge battery  Assuming that 2 hours a day is used to
charge the battery and 2190 hours of use for the life of the product, we get .002kW/hr
End of Life

End of Life was determined assuming that the customers would recycle the entire product due
to its composition of recycled materials
Transportation Breakdown (Assuming the company is located in the Bay Area, and the customer
resides in Berkeley, CA)

107. 







Bamboo
o From bamboo farm in Colorado
Polyurethane foam (Memory Foam)
o From Pittsburgh, PA
Organic Cotton
o From Spartanburg, SC
Steel
o From Pittsburg, PA
Copper
o From Copper Mine in Arizona
Ferrite
o From Iron Mine in Minnesota
Recycled PET
o From Massachusetts
All Electronics
o From Fremont, CA
After looking at our data from our first LCA we asked ourselves “In what ways can we improve
the environmental impact.” We looked at some of the big factors that had a significant environmental
impact: Materials, Transportation and End of Use. To address these issues we made a decision to make
the product entirely in the US. This will not only reduce the price and environmental impact of
transportation drastically, but also allows us to communicate with the manufacturers much easily and
have a product much higher in quality. Another change we made was the material. We decided to
create our product entirely out of recyclable and recycled products. This will simplify our users disposal
of the product and thus improve the end of life drastically.
Life Cycle Assessment of Tensegrity Chair
Impacts per Functional Units
0.16
0.14
0.12
0.10
0.08
0.06
0.04
0.02
0.00
Manufacturing Life
cycle stage
Use Life cycle
stage
End of life
Environmentally Friendly Materials
Transportation
Common Materials
Total

108. This graph shows the comparison of our initial (light green) and final LCA (dark green) using the online
application Sustainable Minds. Across all categories we made improvements, which resulted in a 25%
decrease in environmental impact.
(a)
(b)

109. (c)
The images above are screenshots of (a) the software Sustainable Minds, (b) the excel data that was
compiled and (c) the resulting pie charts made from our data
Sources:
Ulrich, Karl T., and Steven D. Eppinger. "Design for Manufacturing." Product Design and Development.
5th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin, 2012. 229-52.
Social Implications
The manufacture, use, and recycling of the tensegrity chair improvement will be made socially
responsible through several methods. First locating our production facilities in the US will ensure that
all workers are well paid and our methods are compatible with US regulations. Our product is socially
responsible, at its core because it improves the lives of an often marginalized section of society.
Finally our repair and resale initiative increases accessibility of the product while maintaining a
strong financial platform and reducing waste. The repair and resale initiative will accept used products
from previous consumers who no longer need the product or want to upgrade to a newer version. Then
we will repair the old product and bring it up to working standard and resell them at a very low price to
lower income customers.
Triple Bottom Line Bibliography:
[1] Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=4075961
[2] Caregiverlist.com
http://www.caregiverlist.com/Rates.aspx
[3] Payingforseniorcare.com
http://www.payingforseniorcare.com/longtermcare/statistics.html
[4] CIA World Factbook
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/index.htm

110. Appendix J: Full Lessons Learned
Through this entire project development many things were learned through the overall design
process and interdisciplinary teamwork experience. By alternating interview teams, each member
contributed unique interview perspectives and experiences that influenced our concept generation and
prototyping process. By increasing creative diversity, more original concepts were be produced.
However, all the team members also had to have a working knowledge of the restrictions and
capabilities of tensegrity technology, so attending enough technical lectures and interviews on a
technology as novel as tensegrity was essential.
One of our biggest problems during the problem was that our project, unlike many others, was
a solution in search of a problem. We partnered with NASA researchers to try to apply non-existent
robotics technology to a completely different market space of elderly home health care. We had more
than our share of stumbles, missteps, and pivots. One of the key lessons we learned was to keep
focusing on the details; as we progressed through the product development process, we realized that
we were thinking too abstractly. First concept generation, and then physical prototyping, forced us to
think concretely and realistically.
During the final stages of the design process, prototype feedback interviews were essential for
a feedback loop that would consistently improve our prototype concept. We needed to refocus our
initial user needs as they were too broad. This was partly due to the fact that a solution was provided for
us, however, we had no question to solve. Performing an LCA on our product definitely opened our
perspective on the environment and taught us how much addressing it improved the quality of the
Tensegrity Chair Lift. It showed us how much environmental impact is reduced through recycling and
how secondary materials can be just as effective, even better in some cases, as using newly refined raw
materials.
During the final stages of the design process, prototype feedback interviews were essential for
a feedback loop that would consistently improve our prototype concept. We needed to refocus our
initial user needs as they were too broad. This was partly due to the fact that a solution was provided for
us, however, we had no question to solve.