Cubby Buddies Week 1 & 2

Task:

Magnolia, Vivian and I are to create an object for kids to easier reach the top shelf of their cubbies.  We are to incorporate feedback and control into our final design.

Cubby Buddy:

After taking measurements from the cubby at the Children's Study Center, we decided to make a pull out stool at the bottom of the cubby while keeping the space large and un-touching the shoes and boots below.

To the right is a drawing with measurements of the cubby sizes.

Issues:

Safety is the main issue we need to keep in mind while designing this cubby.  When the kids pull out their cubby, having it out is not safe with others walking around in the hall.  We also need to ensure they will be safe when using the Cubby Buddy.

We also need to take in mind maximizing space when creating this Cubby Buddy.  With a pull out device, it can easily become too bulky.

With 37 cubbies in the Children's Study Center, minimizing cost will be a struggle.  Although for this project we are only creating one final Cubby Buddy model, if this were to be used in the Children's Study Center, we would need to keep the cost down.

How It Works:

Handles:

Kids are allowed to pull out the cubby by themselves.  There will be a curve shaped handle that will go across the entire length of the cubby.

For safety precautions, we added handle bars to the side of the cubby for the children to hold on to while stepping on top of the cubby.  By analyzing the average children height, we will determine where exactly and how many sets of handle bars to put on the cubby.

Sliding & Locking Mechanism:

A wheel will be attached to the end of each side of the Cubby Buddy and will slide with the guide of a track connected to the side of the cubby.

When the cubby is pulled all the way out, the weight of the child on the cubby will keep the cubby from sliding back in on its own.

However, when the cubby is pushed back in, our initial idea was to have an elastic plastic shaped with half circles for the wheels to slide and lock into place when pushed all the way in.

Second Idea: there will be two wheels, one wheel which will not be able to move much at the end of the cubby keeping it in place.

Lights:

For our feedback and control, we will 1. use an ultrasonic sensor at the back of the cubby to sense how far the cubby has been pulled out.  2. We will use a button on top of the Cubby Buddy, and when stepped on, green LED lights attached to the edge of the cubby and below the board of the main cubby will turn green.  Once the kid steps off the button, after a given second or two with the unpunished button, red LEDs will turn on behind a picture informing the kids to push the cubby back in.  We incorporated visuals as they might be too young to understand why green generally means go and red means stop.

In the picture to the right, the kid's height is exaggerated to show where the lights would be put.