Summary

The project presented here is relevant to both Electrical Engineering and the humanitarian effort. Performed by students Chris Wagner, and Iris Yi for CSU ECE401: Senior Design I, the system being developed serves to open a handicapped door without any human interaction, thus eliminating many issues which plague the current handicapped door system. The project uses wireless technologies that already exist for the specific application of opening doors when a wheelchair is in close proximity; but only when opening the door is actually desired. Utilizing a combination of Electrical Engineering skills such as designing, testing, and implementing a digital circuit system, the team will create a system to accomplish this goal.

The Wireless Door Opener Project was launched two years ago as a Senior Design project at Colorado State University, a class where Electrical and Computer Engineering students gain valuable experience taking a project from the unreliable product to a mature stage of which is useful for real-world applications. The core technology of this year’s project is the communications between two transceivers on a wheelchair and a door. It is to sense and determine the speed and direction of the transceiver on a wheelchair using a group of concentric circles produced by a radio transceiver that varies its strength by a microprocessor on a door. Also, we solved the power consumption problem from last year’s project through signal processing, which is, more specifically, saving 99% of the power consumption of the transceiver at the wheelchair by switching it from the sleeping mode to the receiving mode for a spark of time in each time period. Our device has the potential to transform the accessibility of public facilities everywhere, and we are eager to adjust the design to maximize both ease for the user, and universal installation possibilities for public buildings everywhere.

Background

This project is based off of the Justin Project which was done for ECE senior design 3 years before our project and an extension of the work down the previous year. We will take the work done from last year, changing as little as possible, but trying to solve the identified problems in a timely, cost effective manner.

Sponsors

Colorado State | ECE Department | Other ECE Sr. Design projects | Support our program