Jehan Yang

Household Claw for Disabled Client

During an EnableTech makerthon at UC Berkeley, my team worked on creating a household claw to help wheelchair-bound users reach dropped objects. Picking up dropped objects was known to be a common problem with wheelchair users, and we hoped to be able to alleviate that with an inexpensive but effective product.

A common issue for people that are wheelchair bound is picking up objects on the ground. This is especially difficult for people that do not have the ability to use their fingers to grip objects.

Through the work of a team of great engineers, we created a prototype solution that was found to be effective at picking up anything from paper to apples using a passive mechanism. This solution was lightweight, and allowed users to reach the ground about two meters away from the shoulder.

In addition, we designed 3D printed parts that are used to help people with low grip strength to plug in appliances. These are customizable and have been field-tested with multiple users to great positive feedback!