Sailability summary, after our visit the other day, I had thought about the type of work we need to do and summarize as follows:
1) Boat modifications for those with physical impairment, professor proposd categorise them into 3 options:
Cat A) Upper limb impairment but mostly functional, and hence require mechanical modification of the interfaces for the arm to control. No motors required.
Cat B) Upper limb is unable to provide enough force, but lower limb is functional, we can develop some foot interfaces (we have had previous works on this) to mechanically control the rudder and sail. No motors required.
Cat C) Upper and lower limb are unable to provide enough force, so require motorised boat, with a custom interface for those in need. This requires the motorised assistance.
Suggested action: We should summarise the participants at Sailability into a table and categorise them based on their needs. Then our team can work out what to do first.
2) Cable-driven sailboat simulator. This would replace existing types of rigid simulators (like those more common on the market), resulting in a more portable, more functional and probably cheaper system.
please refer to the VR sailing website which is the most professional work done by medical professional with sailing experience
https://www.virtualsailing.com.au/
Suggested action: We can have a look at the robot at our lab to better understand what cable robots are and hence how it can be helpful as the sailboat simulator.
Prepared according to the whats-app chat
Sailability x CUHK MAE
