At this point in time, we were still finalizing our harness design. We created a more detailed version of this final design and added a few slight modifications to make the design more effective.

The team began to do materials research. We considered materials that were durable, breathable, and created slight compression for our harness. For the straps, we decided upon polyester webbing, a material commonly used for straps on dog harnesses.

After having a drawn out version of our design, we decided to use AutoDesk Inventor to help us visualize how the harness would look in 3D. While we knew that the material would be fabric and not rely on 3D printing to help develop a prototype, Inventor was very helpful in allowing us to better visualize our design.

Now that we knew which materials we were going to use for the prototype, we began the very first steps in translating the design from our iPads to the fabric. Even though we were waiting for our materials to be ordered and sent, we started to sketch a to-scale version of the harness on paper.

We decided that after the comfort tests were performed on Isabella’s dog using the first prototype, there were still changes that needed to be made. We used the first prototype as a basis for our second prototype, only changing the position of the straps, the type of seam used, and the size of the harness.

We began the first tests using the second prototype. These tests would determine if the harness was comfortable enough to proceed to the other tests. First, we confirmed that the size was good for small dogs. Then we confirmed that it is comfortable enough for a dog to wear over a 2 hour span of time.

In order to help us test our prototype, we needed a dog mannequin. However, mannequins of dogs are expensive. We decided to use Isabella’s dog to create a dog model. Using plastic wrap and tape, we created a scale model of the dog.

Confirming that our harness both fits and is comfortable, we added the buckle-strap. At this point in time, we successfully created our final prototype. We would continue to test it at school the following week.

We completed the final test for our prototype in class using the Xaverian fitness center.