Students create robotic locker opener for classmate with muscular dystrophy

Two high school seniors have created an automatic locker opener for a classmate with muscular dystrophy.

Nick Torrence, a junior at Pinckney Community High School, was unable to open his own locker before Micah Stuhldreher and Wyatt Smrcka, students who took first place in the SkillsUSA national robotics competition in 2012, designed the robotic locker opener.

Torrence can now open his locker by just slightly moving his hand over a sensor. A similar movement closes it.

"It's good to see it works," Stuhldreher said of the working device.

Occupational therapist Amy Uphouse approached Sean Hickman, the school's robotics teacher, with the challenge of creating something that would help wheelchair-bound Torrence access his locker.

"I think every high school student should be able to open their own locker," she told Daily Press & Argus.

"The students I work with needed something like a garage door opener with a garage door opener switch, just for lockers instead," she told NBC News in an email.

Hickman agreed that it would make a great project for his two brightest students.

It took the seniors, who both plan to pursue careers in robotics, almost a year to complete a functioning design that Torrence could use.

"Micah and Wyatt worked diligently on personalizing the automated locker so Nick could get to the inside of his locker independently," Uphouse wrote.

Jean, Torrence's mother, was thrilled with the final device.

"It gives him something to do without asking for help," she said, adding that a student is assigned to help her son carry his books and jacket. The robotic locker opener makes Torrence feel more independent.

According to the Daily Press & Argus, Stuhldreher and Smrcka won a $1,500 minigrant from the Society of American Military Engineers so other devices can be made.

"I have two more students identified," said Uphouse. "By installing the automated locker, they too will be independent."