Grandson invents robotic trolley for elderly and disabled

Like many young people, Aiden would often help his elderly grandmother with small tasks, such as going grocery shopping. However, after seeing his grandmother, Lydia, struggle to carry her groceries, Aiden decided to create a device that could help her even when he couldn’t be there. This inspired the ‘Trolley for the Elderly’, a mechanized shopping cart with height adjustment features which could help many elderly and disabled customers with trips to the supermarket.

Aiden felt it was very important for people to access a height adjustable feature at the flick of a switch. "It can change height so elderly people don’t have to lift their bags very far", he said.

The invention earned Aiden a first place prize at a national engineering competition called the ‘2015 Scottish Engineering Special Leaders Awards’ after creating initial blueprints, allowing McCann to work with a team of students to make the idea a reality. Applying the creativity inspired by his experience with his grandmother to a wider scale to help more people has made Aiden want to become a mechanical engineer in the future. Upon seeing the first prototype. “When I saw the working trolley for the first time I was amazed", he remembered.

Lydia was also extremely pleased with the prototype, saying that she loved it, and that she hopes it will be available for more people to use in the future. Needless to say, she is very proud of her grandson’s success. “He came up with an idea for the trolley... I was quite proud of him, designing something like that", she stated.

Adapted from: http://bit.ly/2sX9eR3