After extensive work on what was a school project, we developed an inflation-based standing assist, an easily detachable battery and motor system, and stuck some cushions onto it and went into the presentation. This prototype was… Bad. It required a good kick every once and a while to keep functioning. We were shocked when we won the $25,000, which served as our seed money then onward.
Design Iterations: Key Lessons from Our Pre-2026 Prototypes
Our early design iterations taught us exactly what not to do. Initially, we iterated toward skeletonized 3D-printed structures. While aesthetically pleasing, these designs suffered from critical durability issues, excessive material flex, and generally high assembly complexity. The performance gains were… marginal at best. The ordeal taught us many valuable lessons, however. It guided us towards entirely new drivetrains, pristine material selections, and Contract Manufacturing partners.
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