Inspirations

Our inspirations for Engineering Success were drawn from the planning of our main project as well as reflections on human practices. To better understand the impact of plastics in daily life and to engage in direct, comprehensive communication with various potential stakeholders, we explored our surrounding communities for further observation.

A phenomenon we repeatedly observed is that many elderly people, especially those in relatively disadvantaged socio-economic circumstances, were used to collect plastic waste for the sake of frugality or to earn extra income. On one hand, seeing them struggle to carry heavy loads of plastic broke our hearts, inspiring us to find an engineering solution to make heavy loads, such as a large volume of water, easier for elderly people to carry and transport, as well as those who have disadvantages in physical strength. On the other hand, we have become more aware of the huge amount of non-degradable plastics in our daily lives. While our synthetic biology project aims to find a biodegradation solution for PET plastics, it is also very meaningful to reduce the use and waste of non-degradable plastics in everyday life, which we believe serves to a coherent value and philosophy.

Design: 1st round

The concept of our initial design was to conduct 3D printing with eco-friendly materials to create a new type of movable bucket. This bucket should be equipped with pulleys and automatic water discharge or drainage facilities. The above measures can ensure that people with weak physical strength or disadvantages, such as elderly people, can also use this bucket to easily fetch water or carry other heavy objects. At the same time, this new type of bucket should be made with eco-friendly materials so that will not burden the environment. We hope that it can replace existing plastic buckets to a certain extent and reduce their use on a larger scale.

Based on this initial design concept, we first carried out 3D modeling of the bucket and conducted background research on the eco-friendly materials:

Build: 1st round

Upon the completion of the 3D modeling, we attempted to find environmentally friendly materials that met the design concept and feasibility for 3D printing.

However, we encountered problems in practice: considering the size of the bucket, the cost of making it through 3D printing would be notably high, and the suitable environmentally friendly materials, of which there would not be many options, might even further increase the cost. This was not only beyond our budget but also deviated from the original intention of our design: an expensive bucket is more likely to become a luxury rather than a solution to a daily life problem of vulnerable groups, and it cannot compete with cheap, mass-produced traditional plastic buckets in the market.

Therefore, we had no choice but to go back to the design stage.

Design: 2nd round

Going back to the design stage, we set a new goal for designing: to use existing or discarded plastic buckets or plastic containers as the model/base of the prototype, and transform them into new mobile buckets with the following functions:

Build: 2nd round

As finalizing the revision of design, we moved forward into the Build stage. We spent a lot of time achieving our design based on the existing plastic bucket, and a new problem was encountered: to fulfill our requirement of making a bucket that can automatically discharge water, we initially planned to install a water pump to the bucket.

Nevertheless, the water pump requires a 220V power supply with a series of corresponding accessories, which will greatly increase the complexity of our equipment. This complexity is not coherent with our concept and original intention of designing this object, as we hope to fulfill the needs of people who are vulnerable in physical and socio-economical circumstances.

After repeated research and experiments, we decided to abandon the idea of using electricity to achieve automatic water discharge. Instead, we decided to seek a solution via mechanical structure.

We tried plastic and metal faucets successively and conducted certain pressure tests and calculations on the side walls of open-top plastic buckets and found out that traditional open-top plastic buckets are not suitable for installing faucets to achieve the automatic water discharge function.

Design: 3rd round

Welcome us back to the design stage - we reflected on our original design concept, the target group we serve, and the real-life problems we hope to solve. As a result, we made a choice: to complete the build-up of our design and move forward to the test phase, only from which we can actually learn and improve, we should temporarily give up the consideration of eco-friendly materials and the use of plastic waste, and focus on designing a movable bucket that can help the elderly, children, patients, disabled people and other vulnerable groups in terms of physical function to easily carry water and other heavy objects.

In order to better fulfill our goal, on top of the original design, we further considered the dangers that physically vulnerable groups may encounter during the transportation process. When carrying a load, people often do not have strong reaction ability, and the disadvantages of this particular group in physical function also make it more difficult for them to deal with emergencies and accidents during the water-carrying process. Therefore, we added a set of LED light prompt equipment to the bucket in the hope of improving the safety of users by notifying passengers in time.

In terms of the bucket prototype, we finally chose a closed plastic water tank available on the market and configured a faucet and a water pipe to achieve the water discharge effect of the mechanical structure.

Build: 3rd round

With a simplified design, we started our building process. The steps can be briefly summarized below:

1. Connected the mechanical water discharge device, such as the faucet and the water pipe, to the water outlet of the closed plastic water tank; adjusted the position and length to meet the requirements of labor-saving water discharge.

2. Installed the LED and other devices in the appropriate position of the bucket, which must be visible to the surrounding passengers, not disrupt the carrying actions, and not within the water discharge range of the faucet.

3. Installed and combined the ergonomic handle (a stretching push rod), pulley, and other devices to achieve the movable performance of the overall structure; adjusted the installment to fulfill the ergonomic consideration.

Test

Upon the successful completion of the build-up of the whole device, we tested it and explored its further development possibilities.

The test shows that with a full load of water, we were still able to move it to any place we wanted with a relatively small pulling force. Moreover, during this process, the LED indicator light had always worked normally, so that the passengers could give way to the users promptly. After moving to the destination, we successfully discharged the water through the faucet and the pipe with a relatively small pulling force. This process does not require the user to lift the entire bucket.

Learn

While the new mobile bucket we designed and remodeled achieved our preliminary goal of allowing physically vulnerable users to easily carry and control a full-loaded water bucket with better convenience and security, there are numerous points in which we could improve:

1. Regarding the planning of the engineering process, we should involve more calculation and measurements in the design and test phases. For instance, we should have a more detailed measurement and data collection of the force we applied to the device as transporting it and discharging the water. Furthermore, for testing the device, we should invite the stakeholders into this process, as they are the targeted users we serve.

2. We still haven't achieved our original goal: to use eco-friendly materials to produce the bucket, which can not only meet the needs of users, but also become a substitute or improver of the existing plastic buckets in the market and daily life. We will further study, research, and explore related issues. This is what we have learned from the failures in the Design-Build stage.

3. Considering to continue refining the current model, on top of the closed water tank, we hope to improve the mechanical structure and shape of the container in the next round of design, so that it can not only carry liquids but also other heavy objects, expanding its use scenarios. We also need to modify the water discharge device accordingly to meet the needs of unloading non-liquid items.

4. Looking ahead, with the increasing trend of aging society in China, we are thinking about integrating more smart functions into this daily tool. Including gravity sensors or liquid level sensors, remote control, or status monitoring, providing a more convenient user experience for the elderly or users with special needs.