Assistive Cleaning Device for Senior Citizen

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Odalys Benitez, Shyheim Rus, Katie Thai-Tang, Mika Notermann

At Olin, there's a course called Engineering for Humanity, revolving around human-centered design for senior citizens. My team and I picked a community partner whose story resonated with us, and set out to build something for them that would make their life a little bit easier. Our community partner was a wonderful individual with a love for art. Her main battles consisted of experiencing pains associated with osteoporosis and struggling with moderate tendonitis in her right hand. She had usually relied on her husband to handle most of the cleaning, cooking, and financial business, especially after her 30-year battle with cancer. With the recent passing of her husband, she had to adjust to being independent and taking care of many tasks on her own again.



Throughout the course, we frequently met with our community partner and shadowed them as they lived their lives. They identified their problems and challenges to us, and worked with us to help create something that would be truly valuable and useful to them. After much observation and collaboration, we decided we wanted to develop an easier method of cleaning and retrieving objects in her home, so that she can feel less stressed about potential injuries. As we came to this conclusion, we conducted multiple experiments and used design tools like Ela Ben-Ur's "Innovator's Compass" to better understand what shape and form the cleaning tool could have. Our product to her was a multi-cleaner tool with adjustable handles and interchangeable heads. Throughout our four iterations, we modified the cleaning tools, 3-D printed new versions of the handles, and went through different material changes to make it as light as possible.