Progress Report 7

Project Title: Ergonomic ultrasound probe

Week of: 3/2/04 – 3/9/04

Group Members:

Yao Lu – BSAC representative

Meghan Olson – BWIG representative

Emily Putzer – Leader

Heather Waldeck – Communicator

Client Information:

Mark Kliewer

Email:

Helpful Resources:

Dr. Nicola Ferrier – Robotics

Dr. Timothy Hall – Mock Transducer Supplier

Dr. Robert Radwin – Ergonomics

Tim Walker – Sonographer

Problem Statement:

During ultrasound procedures, sonographers must apply high levels of force while performing detailed movements, the combination of which increases the number of work-related injuries, especially to the forearm and wrist. Our goal is to develop an ergonomic design to minimize the forces applied and improve the current ultrasound procedure.

Restatement of Team Goals:

Nail down visuals to be used in the presentation to describe each design idea

Finish presentation, divvy up parts, and practice individually

Perfect the PDS

Begin writing mid-semester paper

Summary of Accomplishments:

Heather and Yao attended a meeting with Mark and Tim on 3/2/04 to discuss our design ideas. Our clients were in favor of the mechanical arm design and gave us a few new client requirements, most notably:

1) The focus should be on the echocardiogram and biopsy procedures

2) There are currently many handle re-design ideas in the works and the mechanical arm is a more novel idea

3) The design should most importantly eliminate the applied force for long durations

Yao began piecing together the presentation, Emily added background and some visuals, Heather described the designs and made the evaluation slides, and Meghan provided the complex mechanical arm visual.

We all worked to edit the PowerPoint and prepared individually for the presentation.

Yao and Heather edited the PDS

Heather edited her drawings of the Transducer and Handle redesigns to be included in the presentation.

Meghan finished her SolidWorks representation of the mechanical arm design to also be included in the presentation.

Yao created an outline for the paper, and we have decided who will write which portion of the paper. Yao also has written the PDS, Design 1, and Additional Requirements sections of the paper.

Difficulties:

None to report

Activities:

Group Activities:

2 hours – Group meeting on 3/3 – Edited the presentation and worked on the PDS

30 min – Group meeting on 3/4 – Finalized the presentation, adding final visuals.

Running Group Time: 9.25 hours

Individual Activities:

Yao Lu – total time: 13.5 hours

2 hours – Outlined the paper and wrote the sections mentioned above.

1.5 hours – Worked on PowerPoint presentation

1.5 hours – Client meeting on 3/2

Meghan Olson – total time: 14.75 hours

2 hours – SolidWorks on 3/3 and 3/4 – continued drawing of mechanical arm

30 min – Updated the website

Emily Putzer – total time: 15.5 hours

30 min – SolidWorks – Learned more drawing tools and features and attempted to draw the transducer redesign – failed.

15 min – Slight presentation revision

1 hour – Practicing for the presentation

1 hour – Progress Report

Heather Waldeck – total time: 17.75 hours

3 hours – Worked individually on the PowerPoint presentation and PDS

1 hour – Attended the meeting with Mark and Tim

1.5 hours – Edited drawings for the presentation

30 min – Practiced presentation

1 hour – Updated design notebook

Running Individual Time: 62 hours

Cumulative Time: 70.75 hours

Goals for Next Week:

Write all sections of the paper, combine, and edit

Individually prepare our design notebooks

Over Spring Break, think about firm parameters for our final design: the mechanical arm