EPICS University Place Retirement Community (UPRC) Innovation Team:

ZERO GRAVITY BATHTUB CHAIR

Fall 2016:

I was the Innovation Team Leader and Team Liaison for my UPRC Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS) team at Purdue University. We were tasked with identifying a need and providing a solution at the retirement community we were partnered with. After touring the area and interviewing staff and residents, I discovered that many of residents suffer from arthritis. My partner and I both researched ways to alleviate arthritic pain without medication. We found that warm water therapy was the best option. However, UP did not have a pool. It only had a broken reclining bathtub. Upon further research, I learned that these bathtubs (just like car seats) utilize the same angles NASA uses for its astronauts' launch chairs, minimizing the pull of gravity on human joints. Thus, our goal was to make a zero gravity chair that could be placed into a bathtub and be used for warm water therapy. The chair itself was constructed of PVC pipe, cement paste, and Paracord. The Paracord was woven into a net and tied to the PVC frame. The prototype was sturdy enough to sit in and was actually quite comfortable, allowing for future strength and situational testing. However, the size of the chair was overestimated and did not fit in the UP bathtubs. It only fit in the walk-in shower. Also, getting into the chair was difficult without armrests. An elderly person would need assistance with the current design. In the future, the chair either needs to be raised or be next to a support to make it easier to use.