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193750 https://hdl.handle.net/2286/R.2.N.193750 http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0 2024-05 21 pages Reyes De Los Santos, Michael Schoepf, Jared Grewal, Anoop Barrett, The Honors College Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Program Text The Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS) Program at Arizona State University (ASU) partnered with ASU’s Facilities and Maintenance team to retrofit their utility carts with motors to make a push-assist system. This push-assist would aid the technicians who use these utility carts to make repairs on ASU’s Tempe campus and lessen the physical strain of pushing the carts. Our team created direct-drive designs and were evaluating between purchasing hub motors or geared motors to power the push-assist system. After our first decision matrix analysis for the motor, we decided on hub motors for the first prototype. However, the first decision matrix criteria were not focused on the performance of the motors due to a lack of information on commercially available motors. Furthermore, a DC motor with a gearbox could outperform a hub motor if properly designed. Thus, this thesis completes research into more specific motor models with clearer performance criteria and creates a new decision matrix for future EPICS teams to consider when prototyping. This thesis is also being written while the team continues to work on its first prototype with hub motors. From some research on the cost, performance sheets, and mechanical complexity of hub motors and geared motors, this thesis’s position is that the initial purchase of the hub motors was valid but leaves a strong recommendation for geared motors to future EPICS teams. EPICS Electric Pushcart Electric Motors Power Transmission Systems Evaluating Assisted Pushcart Designs using Data-Backed Decision Matrices