DESIGN INNOVATIONSEGAL DESIGN INSTITUTE
at the McCORMICK SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING

Lambs Locker

User-friendly lockers designed for the needs of adults with developmental disabilities

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Over four years, Segal Design Institute students and staff collaborated on a solution to help developmentally disabled residents of the Green-Field Home at Lambs Farm – a Libertyville, Illinois-based nonprofit that serves adults with special needs – access their personal possessions.

Problem

Several Green-Field Home residents struggled to operate their personal snack lockers. With the existing solution, 16 wooden lockers opened with a small, mailbox-sized key, residents frequently encountered difficulties identifying their specific locker, turning the key and maintaining their balance while holding items and relocking the door.

This project serves as an exemplar of what it takes to conceptualize, design, produce and deliver a high-quality product within the constraints of an undergraduate engineering curriculumProfessor David Gatchell, MaDE Program

Solution 

From 2012-2016, students and staff at the Segal Design Institute – four Design Thinking and Communication (DTC) students, eight faculty advisors, four shop staff members and 10 summer interns – collaborated on an 18-cabinet, nearly hands-free system. When a resident scanned his or her assigned RFID card, a solenoid latch on the designated locker automatically opened the door, which then remained ajar until the user pushed it shut and the latch reengaged to lock.

Development Process

Beginning as a DTC student project in early 2012, the team of Nick Dotzenrod, Joe Jurado, Hanyu Zhu and Aaron Fast designed the RFID card-powered solution before building a scaled-down prototype featuring two lockers, a scanner and two key cards.

Propelled by a grant from the Don Norman Foundation and the support of engineering professor David Gatchell, Fast then continued developing the project until graduating in 2015, including two quarters of independent study and one summer as a Segal intern. Visiting Lambs Farm numerous times to test ideas with residents, Fast constructed a full-scale system that matched the Green-Field Home footprint and also installed most of the locking systems.

Thereafter, subsequent Segal interns fine-tuned the product and conducted rigorous final testing to ensure peak reliability. 

“This project serves as an exemplar of what it takes to conceptualize, design, produce and deliver a high-quality product within the constraints of an undergraduate engineering curriculum,” Gatchell says, calling Fast’s passion and persistence an inspiration for his project colleagues.

Current Status 

During the four years that Lambs Locker was in development, renovations to the Green-Field Home removed the need for the students’ solution. However, all was not lost, as the system now lives in an arts-and-craft studio at Lambs Farm where it controls access to materials.