Automated Toilet Seat Group 12:30  Kimberly Alberts  Brian Lockwood  David Lomax  John McFaddin  David McGinnis  Chad Medlin

Problem Statement Attach to any existing toilet (Residential and commercial) Lower gently after set amount of time Aesthetically contained Non-electric Considerate Seat – No longer in production

Subsystems - Lowering Torsion Springs Reverse Cam Hydraulic Piston Padded Free Fall Clock Spring String

Subsystems - Timing Falling Piston Ball Maze Kitchen Timer Falling Liquid/Sand Falling Weights

Subsystems - Locking Spring/Ball Bearing Lock Spring-loaded Pin Lever attached to seat Divot in Reverse Cam None (Equilibrium)

Subsystem Ranking

Examples From Patent Search ‘Mechanical Linkage’ Pistons Flush-activated lever Hinge assembly

System Ranking SPRING-TIMER-BALLBEARING: 140 SPRING-TIMER-LEVER: 104 SPRING-TIMER-NONE: 112 SPRING-FALLINGSAND-NONE:112 SPRING-MAZE-NONE:104

Torsion spring timer trigger lever Systems to Test

Things to Consider Containing device in small box- work with existing seat Padding to eliminate noise Damping must be added into the design oGears - increase friction/inertia oPaddle wheel hinge moving through liquid oPatented oAny other way to capture friction/viscous damping