A group of University of Missouri-Rolla students recently turned over to the Rolla Area Sheltered Workshop four prototypes of assistive technology devices that will make jobs easier for their disabled employees.

Graduate students enrolled in the Modern Product Design course taught by Dr. Robert Stone, associate professor of basic engineering, and Dr. Daniel McAdams, assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, developed and designed the prototypes in conjunction with the RASW. The students presented RASW officials with their prototypes on Dec. 18 before putting them into service in the plant.

The RASW hires people with mental and physical disabilities. Their tasks include placing stickers on boxes and charcoal bags, folding letters and stuffing envelopes, and filling boxes with variety packs of dog food.

A self-adhesive label dispenser that accepts standard sheets or rolls of labels was developed to assist workers with placing the labels in a specific location on collapsed cardboard boxes. "Currently, this manual task present difficulties in separating the label from its backing paper for persons with mobility impairments," says Dr. Robert Stone, associate professor of basic engineering at UMR.

Another label dispenser was designed to assist employees with applying stickers to packages that do not have flat surfaces, such as bags of charcoal. "The bulk stickers are stored on a roll of backing paper," Stone explains.

Students also designed a counting device for packaging bulk items. "The user’s task in this case is to count specified numbers of different products and place in one box for shipping," Stone says. "For instance, three packages of Product A, five packages of Product B, and two packages of Product C go together in one box for shipping. The current quality control mechanism weighs a completed box to see if the correct number of items is included. Weight variability in each small package made weighing the entire box an unreliable method of quality control. A new product was needed."

In addition, students built a letter folder that can pick up one sheet at a time from a stack of letters and bi-fold or tri-fold each individually. An envelope holder that will allow a person with only one functional hand to stuff a folded letter into the envelope before sealing it was also developed.

Students who worked on the projects were:
– Matt Bohm of Carthage, Mo., a graduate student in mechanical engineering.
– Ammar Canteenwala of Pune, India, a graduate student in mechanical engineering.
– Narendra Chennamsetty of Kurnool, India, a graduate student in mechanical engineering.
– David Comella of Springfield, Va., a graduate student in mechanical engineering.
– Amit Gawate of Pune, India, a graduate student in mechanical engineering.
– Ryan Hutcheson of Houston, Mo., a graduate student in mechanical engineering.
– Vinay Kadekar of Shimoga, India, a graduate student in mechanical engineering.
– Jacob Miller of Kahoka, Mo., a graduate student in manufacturing engineering.
– Nagesh Mula of Chattisgara, India, a graduate student in mechanical engineering.
– Amir Nafar of St. Charles, Mo., a Ph.D. student in engineering management.
– Rich Ormsby of Florissant, Mo., a graduate student in mechanical engineering.
– Venkat Rajagopalan of Hyderabad, India, a graduate student in mechanical engineering.
– Neelesh Sarawate of Pune, India, a graduate student in mechanical engineering.
– Todd Sparks of Sparta, Ill., a Ph.D. student in mechanical engineering.
– Mike Stock of Belleville, Ill., a graduate student in mechanical engineering.
– Michelle Switzer of Jefferson City, Mo., a graduate student in aerospace engineering.
– Yogesh Thakar of Kolhapur, India, a graduate student in manufacturing engineering.
– Viral Thakkar of Nagpur, India, a graduate student in mechanical engineering.
– Scott Uder of Lebanon, Mo., a graduate student in electrical engineering.