S.T.R.I.D.E

Inspiration

Experiencing extreme snowfall and large amounts of snow is uncommon in Hamilton and Southern Ontario, so we looked at places where such weather was more common for inspiration. Primarily looking at communities in Northern Canada, Russia, and Nordic countries for inspiration we came across a variety of innovations made by people in these regions which make snow travel more efficient and safer.

What it does

The STRIDE is a navigation kit optimized for walking through deep snow. With a telescoping support that enables you to propel yourself forward and generating a force to pull you forward, reducing the weight on your feet for comfortable travel. The kit also includes shoe attachments for traversing different kinds of snow; a cleat attachment for compact snow/ice and a widened base attachment for softer snow.

How we built it

After brainstorming we used 3D CAD to model our designs and then used additive manufacturing in the form of FDM 3D printing so we could quickly make detailed designs.

Challenges we ran into

Navigating 5ft of snow is quite a daunting task and it was challenging to find solutions for this problem that were compact enough to fit inside a backpack. We faced this issue through the use of modularity, by breaking down our features into parts that could telescope and disassemble the STRIDE became easy to carry around in a backpack or sports string-bag.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Being able to create a kit with several applicable functions for dealing with snow something we were proud of, and having it collapse to be stored away easily.

What we learned

We learned that traveling through inconsistent terrain like snow requires many considerations like the type of snow (soft compact) and how to integrate those aspects in an ergonomic way that is still comfortable for the slides.

What's next for STRIDE

An initial idea we had was to have an insulating sleeve attached to the shoe attachment that would negate the need to wear winter boots as the STRIDE would account for both functions of a winter boot; helping walk on snow and keeping feet warm.