COURSE DOCS READINGS PICTURES VIDEOS WEB

COURSE DOCUMENTS:

Detailed Course Information
M-Lab/D-Lab shop rules
Kenya available component price listing (bicycle, bearings, steel)
Tanzania available component price listing (bicycle)
Zambia available component price listing (bicycle, bearings)

Available steel sizes in Tanzania
(Note: most of these sizes are also available in Kenya and Zambia. If you are in question, ask your community partner for confirmation)

Feedback results from strategy presentations
Feedback results from concept presentations
Material analysis of commonly available mild steel tubing sizes

 

READINGS:

Whirlwind's "Proposal for Wheelchair Standards"
ISPO's "Wheelchair" article
Amos Winter's "Assessment of Wheelchair Technology in Tanzania"
"Nothing About Us Without Us" - Wheelchair Section
MIT's 2.007 Lecture Notes - "Design Process"
Ralf Hotchkiss' "Independence Through Mobility"
"Mechanical Principles of Wheelchair Design"

PICTURES

Tricycles used in Sub-Saharan Africa: This file is a compilation of many of the tricycles I have seen in Kenya, Tanzania, and Zambia over the past two years.

More tricycle designs: These trike pictures were given by APDK. They are from tricycles made in Uganda and Sudan. They were designed by the NGO CBM.

 

VIDEOS

Whirlwind's RoughRider: This is a promotional video for Whirlwind's new chair, the RoughRider.

APDK - Handcycle manufacturing video: This video shows the process of making a tricycle at APDK in Nairobi

APDK - Wheelchair manufacturing video: This video shows the process of making a wheelchair at APDK in Nairobi

DAGE - Handcycle manufacturing video: This video shows the process of making a tricycle at Disabled Aids and General Engineering in Dar es Salaam

Mobility Care - Wheelchair manufacturing video: This video shows how Mobility Care makes a wheelchair
Disacare - Wheelchair manufacturing video: This video shows how Disacare makes a wheelchair, as well as some of the modifications they have invented in their shop

Freedom Technology Tricycle Research Video: This video is awesome! It is made by Freedom Technology, which is a wheelchair workshop in the Philippines. These guys did some great research into user needs and came up with some awesome designs.

Move with Freedom MORPH Video: Rory McCarthy, one of the mentors for the class, is developing a new handcycle that can morph between a low position for long rides and a high position for maneuvering indoors. Check out this video of the MORPH in action!

 

WEB RESOURCES

Google: If you have never used Google, you probably grew up in a cave. It is the best search engine ever!!!
McMaster Carr: It's like a hardware store with 6.022X10^23 different products
How Stuff Works: How Stuff Works lives up to its name. It is the best resource for finding out how different technical things work. This website will serve as the class text.
Efunda: Good place to look up analysis that has to do with engineering. Forget what stress is? efunda can tell you all about it.
Wikipedia: Wikipedia is great for learning a small amount about anything. Want to know when Thomas Edison invented the light bulb? This is the place to go. WIKIPEDIA
Matweb: Matweb is a great place to find material properties. They have information on just about any material you can imagine.
Math.com: This is a good place to look up mathematical concepts. You can quickly find things like common integrals or trig identities.
2.007: This is the website for the MIT mechanical engineering department’s introduction to mechanical design class. The lecture notes have are the best compilation of design principles I have ever seen. Students build robots for a class project (where do you think I got the idea for our class!). You can find some really ingenious technical solutions in some of the robots.
2.007 Website
2.744: This is the website for MIT's graduate product design class in mechanical engineering. It has many great links to other sites, and tells about the basics of product design.
Google Scholar: Google Scholar is an easy way to get academic articles for free. It works just like regular google.
USPTO: At the US Patent Office, you can search for any patent issued from the 1700's till now. Looking through patents generates good ideas, and prevents you from reinventing the wheel. If you are thinking of designing a protective carrying case for your banana, sorry, it already exists (US Pat# 6,918,231)
Free Patent Fetcher: If you find a patent that looks sounds interesting, like a banana carrying case, Free Patent Fetcher is a really easy way to download it in pdf form.

World Bank: This website is a resource for all kinds of info, including general statistics for every country.

UNDP: The United Nations Development Project website has a bunch of articles that might be useful in gathering info about development.

USAID: The United States Agency for International Development website is another resource with many articles about international development and disability.

Whirlwind: The Whirlwind Wheelchair International website has many wheelchair related articles and links to other disability organizations.

Motivation: The Motivation website has many wheelchair related articles and links to other disability organizations.

ExtremePhoneCards: The “I Talk Africa” card is the best I have found for calling Kenya and TZ. It gives about $0.05/min to a land line and $0.20/min to a cell phone.

D-Lab: Our MIT international development friends in D-lab have a whole bunch of info, case studies, and other stuff on their webpage.

Disability KAR: The Disability Knowledge and Research website has tons of academic articles and other useful info about disability around the world.

Freedom Technology: This NGO in the Philippines makes some awesome mobility aids. They did some innovative designs for their two new tricycle models (see video above)

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