"Doggy Dolly": Design exploration of customised mobility device for a handicapped dog

Abstract

This paper introduces the research and process of assistive device design for a special 4-year-old dog who lost one of his front left legs due to a gun shot by a policeman on the street. This project involves diverse design activities that include the observation of the 4 dog’s daily activities and gait (walking style), data collection and analysis, concept generation, prototyping, and product testing. The primary goal of this project is to design a customised mobility device which enables the dog to walk around with ease and comfort. Mobility, durability, stability, safety, ergonomics, and comfort were the main objectives to make this product successful, and they were tested during the entire design process to reach the goal. This paper illustrates how a design team from The Design School at Arizona State University in the U.S.A. helped the handicapped dog with an assistive device by sharing the challenges, successes and focused ergonomic research on the user experiences of a dog.