Desenvolvimento de protótipo de dispositivo para auxiliar no desacoplamento do cinto de segurança de veículos automotivos

Abstract

The world demographic scenario is marked by the current ageing of the population, which demands a better quality of life, autonomy and indpendency. On the other hand people in this group of population are more suceptible to diseases such as arthritis. Someone with arthritis presents many difficulties in performing several common daily activities. Another aspect that deserves to be highlighted is that more and more people are looking for autonomy to carry out their activities. One of the mechanisms for ensuring autonomy and mobility for someone is to drive cars in a safe way. People with arthritis can present many difficulties in coupling and decoupling a seat bealt when driving a car. Usually, the procedure for them can take time and some even can refrain from using the seat bealt, which can compromise their safety. In this way, this work aims at developing the design and prototype of a device that helps people with arthritis to drive automotive vehicles, respecting the safety procedures regarding the seat bealt fastening. For this purpose, the design methodology proposed by Pahl et al. (2005), where the informational project was implemented, contemplating the collection of data for the project. With these data, the project specification document was elaborated, which establishes the objectives and goals to be achieved during the product development. With this, the conceptual and embodiment desing of a potential solution was deployed. A first prototype version was produced employing 3D printing resources. When conducting preliminary tests, the team realized the need for modifications in the concept. The model was refined and a new set of dimensioning was implemented. A new set of tests were carried out with people with arthritis. The obtained results were promising and fulfilled the main objectives stated.