Welcome back everyone, sadly this is our last blog update.
After a whole year working really hard we can all look at our tricycle and feel proud. The patients, our liaisons and coach, and the team are moer than satisfied with the final delivered product.

As RideOn! was selected as exemplary team and we are going to the Capstone Design Conference in A&M in Texas, we delivered our FDR presentation in the auditorium.

Before this presentation the team had a lot of information to include in the FDR report. And some sacrifices…

And thanks to all this hard work, the stakeholders received the finished tricycle and they were able to test it during FDR.

After a successful semester, we would like to thank the IPPD program, our coach Dr. Cárdenas, our liaisons Dr. Stubbs and Dr. Taivassalo and of course all or patients and their families for their help during this project. Without everyone’s help, this would have never been possible.

We are sad it is time to say goodbye but we hope to be able to continue working on this project in the future. Until then, we encourage all of you to ride on.

The team did it. We have a functional tricycle.

After all the hard work from all the members, the mechanical sub-systems work perfectly, and thanks to the effort from electrical team, the resistance in the hands and assistance in the legs are able to communicate and adjust in real time.

We had the opportunity to meet with one of the patients this week, and unlike previous times, now to test the functional product and not only a prototype.

Of course there are still small adjustments to do before the tricycle is perfect, but we are happy to share that most of the work is done.

Of course to get to this point a lot of work had to be done.

And of course the team couldn’t waste the chance to get some good sunlight after a long day of hard work.

And here is the team’s final Poster that will be displayed during FDR:

Thank you for reading and see you all next week!

Welcome back everyone!
With just a couple weeks ahead of us the team is preparing for FDR

As media to show during the next presentation the team has produced a spectacular cinematographic video and a visual poster featuring all the subsystems of the project.

But of course the building continues and the quality of the components increases. Moving from 3D printed parts that were used in the prototype for PID, the final mechanisms will be made out of aluminum.

Thanks to the help of Jeff Bielling from the Herbie lab, we could manufacture two key components for the driveshaft in aluminum. The motor mount and the brake mount.

The rest of the mechanical team took care of the handlebars and the mounting system for the front generators.

After all this work, our promised product is closer every day. The team will be happy to present all of our progress during FDR.

See you all next week!

After a successful PID winning 3rd place, the RideOn! team is proud about all the progress acomplished and excited to share that we are one of the two teams selected to attend the Capstone Conference in Texas!

During PID we had the chance to share all of our progress and present an advanced stage prototype.

First, we explained the hand-crank system and the electrical team had the chance to share all the progress regarding the PCBs and programming.

Following, the team demonstrated the behavior of the driveshaft with a successful implementation of the one-way clutch and the motor functioning.

Finally, the app was presented, featuring a live demonstration of the app running on an Android phone.

Great thing have been acomplished and greater things await

Welcome back everyone!

During spring break great progress was made. The front housing was completed and 3D printed, with an optimized design to reduce the size and improve airflow.

After working hard during spring break the team continues on its path to success. After all the parts finally arrived, the mechanical team continued machinning in the lab to finish all the parts for the driveshaft.

The electrical team also made great progress programming the PCB and developing the app. The display and buttons were added to the front housing

Almost ready for PID, once all the components were built, the motor was mounted to the frame of the trike, and the sprockets and one-way clutch to the driveshaft. The ring ensured a successful connection of this clutch to the belt gear, and the chain connects the sprockets to the motor. The drivetrain is almost finished and here is how beautiful everything looks:

Welcome back everyone!

With spring break approaching, this week focused heavily on developing the rear drivetrain of the adaptive tricycle. Our team made significant progress in both the mechanical and electrical aspects of the system!

To start the week off, we produced several 3D-printed prototype motor mounts to evaluate possible motor placements on the back of the tricycle. These prototypes allowed us to quickly test different geometries and mounting positions without committing to metal yet. By installing these printed parts on the frame, we were able to visualize how the motor would integrate with the existing drivetrain and catch any potential alignment and chain clearance issues before it’s too late.

Following motor mount came the one-way clutch integration. The mechanical team began machining a part to help connect the one-way clutch to the drive shaft so everything can spin together properly.

On the electrical side, Altium issues were resolved earlier in the week. However, turning the schematic into an actual PCB layout has been more challenging than expected. Arranging the components and routing the connections on the board took several attempts, and we are still working through the design to make sure everything fits and functions properly before sending the board out for manufacturing.

Anyways, the team will continue to work through the spring break to finish up the PCB, start developing the embedded firmware that will be run on these custom PCBs and start working towards a final front housing prototype. There won’t be another post next week, but we’ll catch everyone up the week we’re officially back!

Welcome back everyone!

Last week, we teased two big circles in the back assembly of our CAD model. It turns out those circles were simply a poorly modeled belt and chain system in the drivetrain. Not quite the mysterious component it looked like at first, but an important part of transferring power through the trike’s rear drivetrain.

To start the week off, our sponsor hosted a BBQ party for families and patients living with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) and invited Team RideOn to attend. It was a great opportunity to meet the community our project is meant to support, talk with families, and see firsthand how impactful adaptive technologies like this can be. Moments like this help remind us why the project matters and who we’re designing for.

On the hardware side, we made some exciting progress by successfully mounting our dual-crank resistance housing onto the front stem of the trike. This prototype setup allowed us to test how the hand-crank resistance system feels when integrated with the trike itself rather than as a standalone unit.

Additionally, we were also able to test the setup with a patient. From this test, we learned some valuable pieces of information that will be instrumental to how we make the final prototype. Firstly, our current gear ratio still produced a little too much resistance on the easiest setting. Based on that feedback, we plan to reduce the gearing from the current 1.6× ratio down to either 1.2× or 1×. Second, the shoulder width of the crank needs to be shrunk.

Meanwhile, the mechanical team worked closely with our liaison engineer to finalize the manufacturing and assembly process for the trike’s rear powertrain. This step brings us closer to transitioning from prototypes toward a fully integrated system.

The electrical subsystem also made major progress this week. We finalized a clean solution for connecting the front and rear electronics by routing wiring directly through the frame of the trike. This approach keeps the wiring protected while also minimizing clutter around the seat for easier patient mounting!

Finally, we reached an exciting software milestone! The mobile app can now receive live heart rate data from the system. The app displays the user’s current heart rate and indicates whether they are within their target exercise zone. This will eventually allow the system to adapt resistance levels to help keep patients exercising safely and effectively.

That is all for this week, check back next week to see what team RideOn! is up to!

Welcome back everyone!

This week was a big one for us.

We had our second QRB presentation, and we made it into the top 7 teams this year! That was honestly huge. It feels good knowing that all the subsystem is starting to look like a cohesive and functioning system!

On the electrical side, we finally got our new gears in. We installed the lowest ratio option, 1.6:1, and the difference was immediately noticeable. The crank feels much lighter and much more realistic for patient testing at the lowest resistance setting.

Of course, new gears meant new stress tests.

We ran a test using last week’s hand crank prototype to stress all the components involved. The transistor was tested without any cooling. It managed to survive about three minutes while holding 1A before giving up. While that technically counts as a failure, it gave us valuable thermal data. It confirms that our final PCB design, which will include proper thermal management, should operate well within safe margins. Additionally, if the lower end is still too resistive, we also have the option to drop it down to a 1:1 ratio as this upper end stress test proved to be a mild workout for a healthy adult.

Meanwhile, the mechanical team has been busy refining the structure. The crank now uses a pin mechanism, and the sliding element has been moved inside the T-connector for better robustness. They also completed a CAD model of the front housing and a system-level representation of the rear subsystem assembly. This allows the team to better visualize everything that is happening before we fully commit to manufacturing the hardware.

That said, we did hit two setbacks on the electrical side. We were informed we are not allowed to order components from certain international suppliers, which means portions of our PCB schematic have to be reworked to use U.S-sourced parts. On top of that, the display we selected is proving difficult to procure, so we may need to pivot to an alternative.

Anyways, if you’re wondering what the big circles are in the tricycle back assembly, tune in next week to find out!

Hello all!

This week, the team has taken the next major step in our hand crank design. They have upgraded from hardware store PVC pipes that were held together with nuts, bolts, hopes and prayers to a 3D printed, adjustable radius crank held together by push pins, hopes and more prayers!

Two iterations of the hand crank were rapidly prototyped. The early-week version used a wooden dowel as a temporary handle to validate geometry and structural integrity. By the end of the week, the second iteration fully incorporated a borrowed crank handle, allowing for more realistic testing and improved ergonomics.

Additionally, the team was very fortunate to observe a DMD patient perform a real benchmark test! This data will be useful later in determining how to tune the tricycle to feel natural to patients.

Special thanks to the patient (you know who you are :D), Dr. Tanja and Ruby.

What’s Next?

The electrical team is still waiting for new gears to arrive to lower the resistance floor of the hand crank. They have received the motor that will power the back of the tricycle and are very excited to get our hands on the VESC controller to start programming it! In the meantime, the electrical team is busy moving away from our perf board circuit to an actual PCB.

On the mechanical side, more iterations are being made to the hand crank. They will be busy designing the mounting mechanisms for the back of the tricycle. Additionally, they will be designing the final hand crank housing so they can move from the current wooden version, to one made of metal!

Anyways, stay tuned and we’ll report back next week!

This week focused on refining our resistance system and tightening integration across electrical and mechanical subsystems.

During our liaison meeting, we demonstrated the current hand crank gearbox and reviewed resistance levels. Our baseline shaft resistance is about 1 Nm, which was deemed too strong for DMD patients. Because of this, we decided to lower the gear ratio from 2.6 to either 2.0 or 1.6. We will order both options and test them to determine which provides the most realistic and comfortable resistance for patients.

Current Hand Crank Housing System Prototype

A major milestone this week was the heart rate monitor demonstration. We confirmed that Bluetooth can transmit heart rate data directly to our microcontroller. This eliminates extra wiring we previously planned to use and simplifies the overall design.

This week we also finalized signal connections between microcontrollers and reviewed the center console display design. The GUI will operate through physical buttons mounted next to the display. We plan to order the battery, display, and input buttons soon.

Overall, this week pushed us closer to a fully integrated prototype. We corrected earlier resistance assumptions, simplified heart rate data transmission, and aligned our subsystem development more closely with realistic patient needs. The next phase will focus on testing gear ratios, validating motor selection, PCB design, and continuing integration across all systems.