More than 10 million people worldwide are living with Parkinson’s disease including family and friends of the S.C.O.T.S. Bots team. When we learned that there are ways to limit the progression of the disease through exercise, we wanted to learn more. Our FTC team - Team KRASH 15465 - started working with a local karate dojo - Ohana Karate - in 2020 that hosts Rock Steady Boxing (RSB). RSB is an international program that benefits Parkinson’s patients and can even pause symptoms of the disease through the use of boxing and other cognitive and physical activities. The team developed a prototype for a boxing bag that works like a Simon Says game lighting up pads for the boxers to hit.

The Punch out Parkinson’s project kept us busy during the summer! We got together as a team to watch “Still”, a movie about Michael J. Fox’s life story including his journey with Parkinson’s, and some of the team also visited the RSB class at Ohana Karate.

After our prototype is developed, we plan to post the detailed list of materials and instructions for how we built and programmed our Punch out Parkinson’s bag as well as share our success with other teams at our competitions. We would love to share this project!  Contact us at scotsbots@gmail.com if you want more details!!