First idea

The objective is to allow regular pedestrians and wheelchair user access to certain areas (sport terrains, parks, ...), while keeping bicycles and motorcycles out. This challenge was laid upon us by the city of Kortrijk, which already has a solution, however not an optimal one. It is shown below and is called 'de klauw'.


My first idea was to simply improve this setup, as it already does quite a good job. The main problem is the force which the wheelchair user has to apply to open and close the claws. A solution would be to make this happen automatically. Since no electronics or machinery are allowed for this challenge, I thought of using the moving weight of those passing through. A mechanism underneath the setup could open the claws to one side where a force is applied by the weight of the user. The force moves to the center of the claws, causing it to open to the other side.