The design challenge stems from the medical field. In surgery, sterilization is a very common process. It is used to prevent cross-contamination from different medical tools. Typically, a container (containing the medical tool) is placed in an autoclave where high-temperature steam goes through the container, removing any present bacteria from the tool.

The design solution is intended to automate this common task during surgery. The design solution consists of a virtual robotic arm, which picks up a container, containing a surgical tool (in our case, scissors), and securely transfers it into an autoclave. The computing sub team’s role was to program the robotic arm to securely transport containers into several autoclaves. The modelling sub team’s role was to design the container that can secure a medical device and enable sterilization.

I was part of the computing subteam. Below this summary is a few images to give more context about the project!

Main Program Loop

Container Design Isometric View