SuperCane

The Super Cane is a reimagined and redesigned multipurpose walking cane which combines three simple assistive devices into one easy to use tool. The devices that have been combined include: a free standing walking cane, grabber, and magnetic pickup tool. This device enables the user to only carry one device instead of three. The Super Cane is convenient, easy to use and durable. The Copley High School (CHS) Engineering Team developed the Super Cane after a friend’s grandparent fell when she was picking up a piece of clothing off the ground. The grandparent needed to use a walking cane all the time as a result of her limited mobility. The team set out to design, develop and fabricate a device that she could not only use to walk but also to pick up everyday objects such as clothes, bottles, coffee mugs and even small metal objects such as keys or even silverware. What the team designed was a fully 3D printable, highly durable Super Cane. The Super Cane is a hybrid, and when it comes to its construction, it can be completely 3D printed. However, in order to make it durable and effective, the fasteners, spring, center shaft, and flex point were all made from off the shelf, easily accessible materials which were sourced at Home Depot. Many prototypes were designed, fabricated and tested (virtually, through CAD software and physically) with varying results. The team determined, through this testing, that the best Super Cane Design had four claws, for freestanding stability, with embedded magnets and an aluminum shaft. The team also designed and tested three jaw designs with and without a segmented 3D printed shaft. Both designs incorporate a simple, strong, lightweight, ergonomic design as well as sharing all the same off the shelf parts. The final part designs meet the competition design requirements, capability of our printers (size and tolerance), and material strengths. First, the CHS engineering team used SolidWorks to develop and virtually test the function and stre