The RERC on AMI national design competition is a contest put on every year to have students solve one of three biomedical engineering design problems. Teams can take either one or two semesters, and there is a lot of importance placed on the accessibility of the final device prototype. The ability to provide for hypothetical clients with varying applications and needs must be addressed in the device, and the culmination should be a working model that can be tested.
Capstone Industries chose to develop the Accessible Pill Cap Dispensing/Cutting device project whose constraints are specified here and reprinted below:
Problem: Medication administration regimens cause significant dispensing and adherence issues for many individuals, often compounded by the necessity of slicing pills in half.
Aim: Build a pill cap that dispenses a set dosage of pills. The cap should be able to dispense the same dosage of 1/2, 1 or 2 pills at appropriate time intervals, once scheduled by the pharmacist. The device should automatically alert the client when to take a pill, and not release any pills except during the set dosing period.
Specs: The automated pill cap device should be easy to use by clients with diverse capabilities and safely assist with dispensing a single dosage during the prescribed interval. The prototype should be able to dispense any of 1/2, 1 or 2 pills at a time and be able to cut pills in half if required for 1/2 pill dosage. It should remind users to take their medications, record what medications have already been dispensed, provide multi-modal indicators of current status, and only dispense the pills within the specified time windows each day. The device should alert someone offsite if a dose is missed. The prototype can be larger than a normal pill cap for demonstration purposes.
With these considerations, we set out to design and build a device that met all of the standards to a satisfactory level and even some more that we decided to include. Please continue to the beginning of our design process - setting up the business and creating initial designs.
Competition Submission InformationBelow are the files for the iQueue dispenser required for entry into the RERC-AMI competition:
- Final Report: PDF | Microsoft Word Document
- Prototype Images: Picasa Gallery
(can also be viewed on the Our Product page) - Demonstration Videos
(can also be viewed on the Final Prototype page)
- Walkthrough Videos
(can also be viewed on the Final Prototype page)
- Overview Video
(can also be viewed on the Final Prototype page)