Design of an assistive eating utensil for an individual with arthrogryposis multiplex congenital

Abstract

A capstone project team meets with an individual with arthrogryposis who cannot bend his elbows or feed himself efficiently due to elbow contractures. An automatic fork is being designed to assist the client in self feeding. With the push of a button, the fork with the food on it will move toward his mouth for ingestion. The project is intended to increase his independence and self esteem.

Selecting the Right Tool for the Task: A Hard-Soft Cake Eating Experiment with a Spoon and Fork

“…The literature on eating utensils have focused on the design of utensils in general [3], to facilitate children [4] and individuals with reduced motor function such as Parkinson's disease [5,6,7] and arthrogryposis multiplex congenital [8].…”