Executive Summary

Problem

Patients with scissoring gait tend to bring their thighs together or cross their legs completely while taking a step, which impairs their ability to walk independently and puts strain on the therapist assisting the patient. Our client, Jenny Sampras, asked us to create a device that will decrease scissoring gait and help cue the patient to take wider steps.

Purpose and Scope

The objective of our project was to design a device that will help patients with scissoring gait in physical therapy to help them walk more independently. Our device must be light, durable, and safe. Additionally our device will be built for adults above the age of 30, so it needs to be sturdy and adjustable in height.

Methodology

We first did background research about scissor gaits to prepare for our client interview. To develop our design, we had a group interview with our client to ascertain the requirements and constraints of our design. Then, we watched videos sent to us by our client to get a better idea of how patients with a scissor gait walk. After multiple rounds of brainstorming for solutions, we used an alternative matrix to evaluate how well an idea met each requirement. We picked the top 3 designs from the alternative matrix, created mockups of them, and sent the mockups to our client for her to test and give us feedback. Our client then told us whether or not our ideas worked and whether features of our design would work with her therapy. Then, we settled on a final design that would work best with our client’s therapy. From there, we met with a shop expert to finalize our design and select materials to use to build our prototype.

Figure 1

Figure 1: The Scissor Stopper

Design

Our final design is an attachable divider to walkers, that extends between the user’s legs to physically prevent them from crossing their legs over the centerline of their body (Figure 1). The way the divider attaches to walkers is by using a vertical support that the divider connects to, which has versatile, adjustable clamps that can clamp onto the front rail of all walkers. This allows our product to be used in all applications, regardless of what design or types of walkers rehabilitation facilities have available to them. Furthermore, the vertical support is also composed of two separate pieces, the piece that connects to the divider and the piece that has the clamps. The two pieces can be connected in different positions using two screws and wing nut washers, allowing for an adjustable divider height. This adjustability feature is very important as our product needs to be usable for adults of all heights. Moreover, this adjustability allows for the rehabilitation to be targeted to specific muscle groups. Another feature of our product is a crossbar, that attaches above the divider to the bottom piece of the vertical support, this will be perpendicular to the divider and acts as a stabilizer to prevent any forward motion of the divider as a whole, as it will rest against the front two legs of the walker. Our design is also lightweight since the materials that we are using are hollow and slotted aluminum rails. In addition, the rails will also have foam padding to prevent discomfort as much as possible during use.