This week, each member is responsible to provide detailed design sketch to choose from for the direction of further development and to create prototype next week accordingly. Above are two of the finalized designs.

On Tuesday, we met for the first time of the week with advisor. The result of the discussion was that most of us need to provide more detailed sketches. And we set up another meeting on Saturday morning. The main discussion of the Saturday meeting was three of our designs. One focus on the mechanism, another applies magnet with the spikes and use the property to turn the device on and off, and finally, the pad with spikes which is rotating around the shoes. We concluded that two of the designs were feasible except for the magnet one since the magnet will not be fixed and it’s directly affecting the traction part. We have another meeting on Sunday for the rest of the designs. It came out with one design that was feasible and there was another design suggested by advisor to create a prototype next week as well.

In order to create a unique ice traction device different from the existing crampons and other devices in the market, we need to make sure it has certain features. For example, it needs to be easy for daily use, and it can‘t affect the walking when it’s not in use.

In conclusion to the three meetings, we decided to have four designs and start to create the prototypes with each of them. Also, we are planning to go to the ice rink to try out the crampon that the sponsor sent us to get more feeling of walking on ice and apply to our design.

Chih-I Cheng, Mechanical Aid for Traction on Ice