Our tool was designed to route wires for extravehicular activity. It utilizes a gear with four sectors to twist the wire ties after each wire tie has been inserted in a different sector. The gear was 3D printed. The gear twists the ties with the help of the medium motor, which is activated by pressing and holding a button. Our tool holds the spool of wire on a (partially) free-swinging arm, to assist when the user is not routing wires in a straight-forward line. We also constructed a device to secure the EV3 Brick to the wrist/forearm of the user.

The gear we 3D printed was designed using TinkerCAD and printed in the Design Lab. The gears included in the set did not have much open space for the wire ties to be inserted, so we designed a gear that had more space in each sector. The STL file for the gear is below.

The button that turns the motor on while it is pressed and stops the motor when released is located in the center of our tool, to make it usable by both hands.

The (partially) free swinging arm aids the user of the tool in routing wires when the direction of the route is not a straight line. It can rotate approxiamtely 180 degrees. In zero gravity, the user would orient the arm in the direction of the route to make the process of the routing easier. The other end of the wire is tied to the end of the arm to secure it to the device.

The EV3 Brick is only connected to the device via the wires that connect the sensor and the motor to the Brick. This keeps the Brick out of the way of the wire routing and makes the tool easier to hold. The device is secured to the wrist/forearm of the user by placing an axle through  two fixed positions and two beams that are allowed to rotate once the wrist/forearm is inside.