Alex Breton | Mechanical Engineer

  2.009 is a capstone class for the mechanical engineering department that takes students through the entire product design process. Teams of about 20 students brainstorm, downselect, design, and finally present an alpha prototype to a live audience of over 2000 people. Students not only learn design and engineering skills, but also gain important product management and business knowledge. 

  Our team, Silver Team, created SleepTight, a device that attaches to backbraces used to treat scoliosis most commonly in adolescents. A large problem with the braces is that they are so uncomfortable, it is difficult for users to fall asleep while wearing them. When teenagers can't fall asleep, many take the brace off to relieve the pain, which renders the brace useless. Our product allowed users to fall asleep with the brace loosened, detected when the user falls asleep, and tightens slowly enough not to wake the user. Below are my initial notes on the tightening design, an exploded view of the tightening system, and a gif of SleepTight working.

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  The tightening system is centered around a worm drive and rack system which tightens the strap quietly with a small DC motor.