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The project is designed for a middle schooler with cerebral palsy, with limited coordination and strength. The desired outcome is for the boy to be able to play basketball with his peers by making a basketball goal fitting to his skill level, and a way to catch the balls after he shoots.
Desired specifications the family requested:
We wanted something similar to classical arcade style basketball games, and took inspiration from pictures found online. We liked the adjustability and ball retrieval from these concepts, but needed the hoop to be larger and lower to account for the needs of the project. We looked into different designs, and found a foldable arcade game apparatus, allowing us to make a foldable design and make our design more adjustable. We also researched a possible way to design the joints to make the game foldable.
Basketball game with foldable frame:
This design is simple and easily stored as it is compact and has a foldable frame. The frame makes it mobile as well, not taking up much space. The design is lightweight, making it easier to move around.
The front legs do not have wheels as they are lifted up when folding the game, but the other legs have wheels on them, making it transportable.
This design only has one hoop, not making the boy being able to play with a friend. The backboard is also harder to adjust, and it is the least stable of the concept designs.
Basketball game with single hoop and adjustable frame:
This design has an adjustable back board to adjust to the boy’s skill level. The front is shaped as a “V”, making it easier to retrieve the ball after shooting. At the end of the “V” there is a gate that can be lifted in order to retrieve the ball.
The design creates a stable structure, and the wheels on the legs of the game makes it easily moved and transported, increasing its mobility.
The frame is rigid, making it harder to store. With the backboard being of hard material increases the chance of bouncing and noise. It also makes the structure heavier.
Basketball game with two hoops at different heights with retractable frame:
This design has a backboard with two hoops connected. The allows two people to play at the same time, with different skill level. The hoops are not adjustable. The game is compact, but the frame is rigid, taking up more space.
The legs have wheels attached to them making it easy to move around. Having two hoops increases the weight of the structure, making it heavier.
So we decided to change up our plan quite a bit. We decided that we will mount the basketball goal onto the wall and just build retrieval system. We are also going to add the spring actuated bar retrieval system that we talked about previously to this design. We are also keeping the folding apparatus and adding caster wheels to make it easier to store and have out of the way.
For our first analysis we are calculating the forces for the forces in the mounting apparatus on the basketball goal. We are treating it like a truss and calculating all the internal and reaction forces.
For our second analysis we are calculating the weight for the legs of the retrieval system.
For the third analysis we are running a simulation in solid work to test the strength of the bolt that will apparatus will be rotating around.
