Sara Mustafa remembers her Uncle Omar’s last few months of life clearly. He struggled with cancer and became paralyzed, needing help with everything, including eating. This inspired Sara, a UTSA engineering senior, to create a robot to help paralyzed people feed themselves. She called her friend Josie Torres, and together they came up with the idea for the OMAR prototype, or the Optimized Meal Assistance Robot.
The OMAR was displayed at UTSA’s Fall 2023 Tech Symposium, where engineering students showcase their projects. It’s a robotic arm that uses facial tracking software and special bowls and utensils. It’s small and portable, with a rechargeable battery and an emergency stop button. The OMAR also has its own mobile app.
During the symposium, Sara and her team demonstrated how the OMAR works. It uses cameras and facial recognition to spoon food into a person’s mouth. The robot can scoop food from different bowls and stop if the person needs help or if something goes wrong.
The team won third place and a $2,000 cash prize at the symposium. They plan to use the money to improve the OMAR even more. Sara hopes the robot will be affordable for many people, unlike other feeding robots that cost around $6,000. She believes her uncle would be proud of the OMAR because it gives physically disabled people independence.
