Ontario students’ tech help allowing man in a wheelchair to mow his lawn left him ‘crying on the inside’ | CBC News

Rob Piper says he loves cutting his grass, so much so that he even considered launching his own lawn-cutting business.

But around five years ago, the Windsor, Ont., man was injured in a cycling accident — he’s been using a wheelchair ever since.

Piper said he took to Facebook to say how much he missed it and was eventually connected with the technology program at St. Anne Catholic High School to find a solution.

“I’m so excited,” he said.

“The boys and girls did an amazing job on it. Tried it out for a couple rows and … ready to go cut the whole neighbourhood.”

Mike Costello, who teaches manufacturing and technology at St. Anne, said he and a group of students researched ideas online of connecting a wheelchair and lawnmower, began to engineer a couple of designs and built a few prototypes.

“We thought, ‘We’re going to build it out of a metal-based lawnmower,’ only to find out that you couldn’t buy an electric lawnmower that was metal based,” said Costello.

Eventually, said Costello, they were able to “hack away” at different ideas on paper until one worked.

“So we had to go back to the plastic … it couldn’t support the wheels and the framework … so we decided to build the frame that would support the lawnmower itself, hold up the lawnmower.” 

The machine is an electric lawnmower that connects to an assistive device, enabling Rob to remain in his chair.

Grade 11 student Jake Polewski said designing the machine was tricky, but it’s made him feel a sense of accomplishment.

“Seeing him [Rob] be able to have some independence in his life and be able to do something for himself. I’m sure it makes him feel good.”

Jake said the wheels were too small on their first prototype and Piper’s wheelchair changed during the design phase — interrupting how he mounted to the chair and extra padding for under his feet.

Piper said that when he first got behind the mower, he fought back tears.

“I was crying on the inside but didn’t show it on the outside. I was so happy, so grateful that they’ve done this for me.”