Adaptive LEGO Separator

Inspiration

Our inspiration stemmed from wanting to make hobbies and toys accessible to those who want to experience the joys of LEGOs and/or relive a childhood memory. Childhood is an important part of life and growing up, we all loved experimenting with and building LEGOs when we were little. As a result, we wanted to bring a little part of ourselves into this project and make it possible for those with fine motor disabilities to use tools that were tailor made for them.

What it does

The separator tool helps children be able to have a more precise grip to break apart LEGO pieces with low physical effort and feel more comfortable using it conveniently. The separator tool comes in a wider length for leverage and for children to have more space on the grip.

How we built it

We began brainstorming ideas and later sketched our design for the adaptive LEGO separator tool. We worked on the OnShape CAD software to design our model and measured the dimensions for accessibility. We considered making the product in hard 3D-printed plastic with a soft grip made with foam or flexible plastic. Our design has two iterations both involving changes to the grip, adding braille as an additional feature, and the length of the separator tool.

Challenges we ran into

One of the earliest challenges we ran into was selecting one idea after our lengthy brainstorming session. After deliberating for 3 hours, we eventually decided on the adaptive LEGO brick separator. Another major roadblock we ran into was navigating the complex UI. It was overwhelming when we first created the file but with enough time and documentation, we eventually became familiar with it.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

This being our first time at a CAD challenge and having barely any prior experience, we spent the majority of our first and second day researching documentation and familiarizing ourselves with the tools given to us on Onshape. We became extremely proficient at using the sketch and extrude tools over the course of the challenge after multiple redesigns of our initial concept.

What we learned

Our project taught us a lot about how inequitable many objects are in our modern world and how to address these inadequacies. Throughout our design phase for our Adaptive Lego Separator, we also learned a variety of CAD processes (such as prototyping, detail/specification sketches, and assembly) that we were previously unfamiliar with.

What's next for Adaptive LEGO Separator

If we were to continue working on our Adaptive LEGO separator, we would first address the grip potentially being uncomfortable to hold for longer periods of time. Our first idea is to switch the grip’s material from plastic to rubber; this would substantially increase production costs, but it’s a tradeoff we could consider when increasing accessibility and usability.