Introducing Willpower Wheels

[Danimal!]

Hi,all.

I'm a mentor for team 4118/graduate student at the University of Florida (UF). Myself, students from the team, and members of the UF community have been adapting cars as well as hosting workshops to teach others how to adapt the cars for two and a half years. These cars are used by children as far north as Philadelphia, and as far south as Tampa. Currently we're working creating a guide to help families adapt 12V cars, something that is not currently supported officially by the Go Baby Go Program. There's a big issue with children outgrowing their 6V cars and then losing their newfound sense of independence and mobility until they become big enough for commercial chairs (assuming the families can afford them). Our design constraints for the manual are:

1. Can only require easily obtainable tools (screwdriver, scissors, etc.)
2. Solderless (crimps only)
2. Affordable (less than $100, not including the car)
3. The manual is adaptable to the large diversity of available 12V cars
4. Safe (all components can handle at least 40A, many cars will break a thermal fuse at that point)
5. A parent without a technical background could safely adapt the car in under 3 hours

It's been a really great project for all those who have been involved. So far we've characterized current draw of a 12V car under a range of conditions (weight, surface, slope, etc.) The electrical design is complete, and we think we have a pretty good solution. It's just a matter of getting everyone together, assembling the new design, testing it, and then finally documenting it. The 5th constraint is really important. We want to get to the point where the process is simplified and streamlined to the point where any parent can feel comfortable in adapting a car for their child, making our solution scalable.

Will's car looks great! It's definitely one of the more "souped-up" adapted cars that I've seen! We just adapted that same vehicle, although ours was the "Frozen" version, complete with a radio that plays "Let it Go."

Have you heard of OpenAt.org? They're a community that looks to connect "makers" with people who have needs in assistive technology.

http://openat.org/