ENSC26 Braille Printer
Team Members: Jamison Schacht, Miguel Alvareg,
Gutavo Rocha, Manuel Uson
Faculty Advisor: Steven Zemke
Sponsor: Gonzaga University's Center for
Engineering Design & Entrepreneurship
Project Overview: This project will involve creating a program that can covert text into a braille pattern, and the braille pattern into a file type that would work on a device similar to a 3D printer. The project will be partitioned into 2 sub-projects. One team will consist of two mechanical engineers whose job will be to design and build a printer that operates similarly to an old HP pen plotter. The other team will work on the device’s coding and will consist of CPE’s who are willing to learn coding. If you’re a CPE and are not willing to learn how to program then this isn’t the project for you.
Summary Statement of Project Goal: In the world there are millions of people who are blind or suffer from partial blindness. Current braille printer technology causes these machines to cost anywhere from $2,000 and upward. Our goal is to create a printer which is much more affordable by using simple existing technologies such as plastic depositing through hot metal extruders.
Project Deliverables:
1. By the end of the school year we will have a low cost braille printer that works by depositing any kind of array of small plastic dots on a sheet of paper.
2. The work will be separated into two components: mechanicals will work on the design and build of the machine, CPE students will work on developing code for the machine to behave as we intend it to. In addition, al team members will work together closely on the early design of the machine and troubleshooting.
3. In terms of schedule we hope to have our engineering drawings done early in the fall semester so we can order/manufacture parts as soon as possible in order to build our first prototype. Coding will begin immediately. The plan is to begin testing late in the fall semester so we can have all of spring semester to make improvements on the early design.
4. Drawings for every component of the machine, wiring/electronics schematics, and code files will be provided throughout the course of the year.
Management & Communication Expectations: To begin we plan on meeting every week, at least two or three times a week in order to make steady progress with the tasks we must perform. As the school year progresses we will meet more frequently. During fall semester the plan would be to complete our design and create a first prototype in order to have a device for the programmers to start testing on. Spring semester we will work on improving the design and making sure the device and the programming are flawless.
Research Expectations: We will be using the already existing technology of the 3D printer and hot plastic extrusion as the backbone of our project.