<p>Together with Hälsoteknikalliansen the project team recognized the need to improve availability in the staircase environments. This is a difficult environment, especially for our elderly. The staircase leading to and from apartments is such a major obstacle that many people do not dare to go into the staircase leading to their front door. The market study that the project team conducted showed that many were in need of a living support, often a relative, who helped and supported them when they went into these stairs. It also appeared that these people manage everyday life just fine, but they suffer the problems that stairs to and from their apartment causes. </p><p>With this as background, the project team has developed a product called SSD - Stairs Support Device. This product offers the user the safety and sense of security they need to dare to go into the stairs. The project and it´s ideas are owned entirely by the project team and this report covers the studies done on the mentioned area and the solution that the thesis has resulted in. </p><p>Our work has been carried out at Halmstad University College as a thesis from September 2008 to May 2009. What the project team has been able to achieve in this short time is an aid that is entirely designed by the potential users own wishes and needs. The project team has developed an aid that both will facilitate daily life for many people, while reducing costs to society of older homes with massive amounts. But especially it gives the opportunity to so many older people to get so much joy in life which they would otherwise have missed if they become attached, in their homes, just because of a small staircase. </p><p>Today, nine months after project start-up the project team can boast the living support that SSD now gives its users.  </p>

Together with Hälsoteknikalliansen the project team recognized the need to improve availability in the staircase environments. This is a difficult environment, especially for our elderly. The staircase leading to and from apartments is such a major obstacle that many people do not dare to go into the staircase leading to their front door. The market study that the project team conducted showed that many were in need of a living support, often a relative, who helped and supported them when they went into these stairs. It also appeared that these people manage everyday life just fine, but they suffer the problems that stairs to and from their apartment causes. With this as background, the project team has developed a product called SSD - Stairs Support Device. This product offers the user the safety and sense of security they need to dare to go into the stairs. The project and it´s ideas are owned entirely by the project team and this report covers the studies done on the mentioned area and the solution that the thesis has resulted in. Our work has been carried out at Halmstad University College as a thesis from September 2008 to May 2009. What the project team has been able to achieve in this short time is an aid that is entirely designed by the potential users own wishes and needs. The project team has developed an aid that both will facilitate daily life for many people, while reducing costs to society of older homes with massive amounts. But especially it gives the opportunity to so many older people to get so much joy in life which they would otherwise have missed if they become attached, in their homes, just because of a small staircase. Today, nine months after project start-up the project team can boast the living support that SSD now gives its users.

This thesis addresses a neglected area of castles studies - the spiral stair. It studies the origins, evolution, placing, structure, role, significance and meaning of spiral stairs in medieval stone castles between 1066 and 1500, so covering the rise, zenith and decline of the castle in England and Wales. Although focussed upon England and Wales, it has a wider geographical spread across Ireland, Scotland, Europe, the Middle East and Japan with particular regard to castles and on even wider when searching for the origins of the spiral stair, encompassing the whole globe. The date range was also extended, both much earlier than 1066 when searching for these origins and very selectively beyond 1500 when exploring how the spiral was used in the later medieval and early modern periods. It is proposed that the first known spiral stair was employed in Trajan's Column in the first century AD, that it was then used more selectively in secular and later ecclesiastical buildings during the first millennium AD and that, from the eleventh century onwards, the spiral stair became a common feature of the medieval castle. From the emergence of the spiral stair in Rome, this thesis places its principal use in European elite and ecclesiastical structures. Focusing on the castle, this thesis argues that it was employed as a vertical boundary marker to signal and control movement between two different types of spaces, from a more public to a more private space and from a general or less restricted space to a space which was more restricted, often elite domestic quarters. This use of the spiral is seen in and is traced through different types of English and Welsh castles, from stronghold to enclosure and on to the so-called sham or cult castles of the late medieval period. The thesis also looks at the spiral in a range of medieval castles and other defensive buildings outside England and Wales and finds that, in the main, spirals were employed in the same way. It also explores the presence and role of the spiral within other medieval buildings, both in England and Wales and further afield, and argues that, although there are some exceptions and variations, in the main spiral stairs played the same role in those buildings. This thesis interprets the spiral stair within the medieval castle as a key component of the landscape of lordship and argues that the interpretation of this elite landscape, hitherto focused on the environs and outward appearance of the castle, should not stop at the castle gate but should move inside. Accordingly, this thesis takes a step to bring the interior of the castle deeper into research and discussion; to explore individual items and features within the castle; and to consider their placing, access and meaning within the medieval world.

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The purpose of this study was to find the best robot configuration for climbing and descending stairs, in addition to traveling on flat surfaces. Candidate robot types were analyzed to find the most suitable one for further study, based on stability, size, and energy consumption. Based on these considerations, the non-variable configuration tracked robot type was selected. The basic robot parameters (minimum track size, comparison of tracks with grousers vs. tracks without grousers, track angle of attack) were determined using static analysis methods and using North American standards for the stair geometry. Dynamic analysis methods were then employed to refine the geometry and ensure the stability of the robot when climbing and descending stairs. The final design was then simulated in Matlab to profile the device's velocity, acceleration, and power consumption during the stair climbing and descending phases. A prototype robot was constructed. The results of this study show that a non-variable tracked robot can be constructed for the purpose of climbing stairs by applying static and dynamic analysis techniques to optimize a design. This study provides the groundwork for this design, which can also serve as a basis for designing robots with other configurations.

The purpose of this study was to find the best robot configuration for climbing and descending stairs, in addition to traveling on flat surfaces. Candidate robot types were analyzed to find the most suitable one for further study, based on stability, size, and energy consumption. Based on these considerations, the non-variable configuration tracked robot type was selected. The basic robot parameters (minimum track size, comparison of tracks with grousers vs. tracks without grousers, track angle of attack) were determined using static analysis methods and using North American standards for the stair geometry. Dynamic analysis methods were then employed to refine the geometry and ensure the stability of the robot when climbing and descending stairs. The final design was then simulated in Matlab to profile the device's velocity, acceleration, and power consumption during the stair climbing and descending phases. A prototype robot was constructed. The results of this study show that a non-variable tracked robot can be constructed for the purpose of climbing stairs by applying static and dynamic analysis techniques to optimize a design. This study provides the groundwork for this design, which can also serve as a basis for designing robots with other configurations.

The purpose of this study was to find the best robot configuration for climbing and descending stairs, in addition to traveling on flat surfaces. Candidate robot types were analyzed to find the most suitable one for further study, based on stability, size, and energy consumption. Based on these considerations, the non-variable configuration tracked robot type was selected. The basic robot parameters (minimum track size, comparison of tracks with grousers vs. tracks without grousers, track angle of attack) were determined using static analysis methods and using North American standards for the stair geometry. Dynamic analysis methods were then employed to refine the geometry and ensure the stability of the robot when climbing and descending stairs. The final design was then simulated in Matlab to profile the device's velocity, acceleration, and power consumption during the stair climbing and descending phases. A prototype robot was constructed. The results of this study show that a non-variable tracked robot can be constructed for the purpose of climbing stairs by applying static and dynamic analysis techniques to optimize a design. This study provides the groundwork for this design, which can also serve as a basis for designing robots with other configurations.

The purpose of this study was to find the best robot configuration for climbing and descending stairs, in addition to traveling on flat surfaces. Candidate robot types were analyzed to find the most suitable one for further study, based on stability, size, and energy consumption. Based on these considerations, the non-variable configuration tracked robot type was selected. The basic robot parameters (minimum track size, comparison of tracks with grousers vs. tracks without grousers, track angle of attack) were determined using static analysis methods and using North American standards for the stair geometry. Dynamic analysis methods were then employed to refine the geometry and ensure the stability of the robot when climbing and descending stairs. The final design was then simulated in Matlab to profile the device's velocity, acceleration, and power consumption during the stair climbing and descending phases. A prototype robot was constructed. The results of this study show that a non-variable tracked robot can be constructed for the purpose of climbing stairs by applying static and dynamic analysis techniques to optimize a design. This study provides the groundwork for this design, which can also serve as a basis for designing robots with other configurations.

This project stems from the dualities joining two worlds: couture, the art of fashion and architecture, the art of building. They both involve the intelligible and the sensible, the skill of the artist and the engineer. Architecture tends towards the rational whereas fashion depends on the emotional. Architecture constructs rational things discovered through conventional methods. Fashion brings the emotional and the sheer immediacy and drama of momentary seasonal trends. This study is made up of two sections, the first, a collection of screen prints and images the second, a collection of conventional methods and projections. The gossamer like screen prints serve as cameras into the world within the Maison de Couture. They capture the essence of the creative process, always-in-motion spirit of a fashion house. The architectural projections describe the architectural skeleton of the Maison. The house is a place for expression; design, fabrication, and demonstration of the spectacle of couture. The heart of this building lies on the central longitudinal axis, where a double helix stair case rotates down to the basement level and spirals up to the rooftop level. Couture pieces are styled and modeled on a series of catwalks that are cartesian extensions of the stair landings. Invited guests can view the spectacle of the fashion show. The stair is a place to see and be seen. The stair becomes the spirit of the Maison de Couture. The works of art worn by the models trickle down the stair, one by one, allowing a select few to view these unique pieces for the first time. / Master of Architecture / This project explores the intersections and concepts that underlie the two disciplines: Architecture and Fashion. Both worlds revolve around the human body, ideas of space, texture, and movement. Each fulfills the need for shelter and protection; acting as a barrier between us and the surrounding environment. Both work to produce three-dimensional volumes from flat, modular materials. Perhaps the most exciting similarity, Fashion and Architecture are expressive art forms; they offer their creators a platform to communicate and project personal, political, and cultural identities into the world. Through the ages buildings and clothes have echoed one another in terms of concept and form; each look to the other for new technology of material, construction, and fabrication. While fashions are "of the moment," architecture has a more solidified presence, permanence. Time, timely, and timelessness are at the essence of both.

This thesis was to me, more than anything else, a pursuit of fascinations. I began with an obsession with stairs: exploring different types, the symbology associated with them, and why I was so adamant about making every fire stair beautiful. This led me to a program and a site - a theater on the corner of Swann St. and 14th St. in northwest Washington D.C.; a building necessitating stairs, in an area of the city that was full of artists and theaters, but which lacked a movie theater. I was compelled to design a magical building, a movie theater of building elements as characters. My professors urged me to choose an opening night movie as inspiration for the design; I was instantly enamored with the idea of designing around Alice and her Adventures in Wonderland. To me, the characters, puns, and riddles in the book were perfect to imagine as the columns, walls, and stairs of my building. This allusion eventually morphed the building into two theaters, an above ground movie theater and a below ground performance theater. As I worked, I had two very important (and related) revelations. First, that a theater is very similar, both in function and layout, to a church. The layout of the building, therefore, I designed like that of a church or a temple. I constantly explored opposing worlds; the above ground dreamworld vs. the below ground reality, the inner sacred world vs. the outer public realm. The essence (the spirit, or soul) of the building is Alice. Second, I feel the most spiritual when I am designing. I realized over time that it was equally important to me to learn how to make my drawings feel as it was to design the building itself. My thesis became art IS religion. / Master of Architecture