An Evaluation of Physical Strains while Driving an Electric Wheelchair

Japan is currently one of the most rapidly aging nations in the world. The population of people having difficulty in walking is increasing as the population ages. The use of electric wheelchairs is rapidly growing along with these factors. Even though we de-sign the Japan´s environment with impediment removal as a foremost consideration, there still exist some obstacles. Electric wheelchair users are involved in some accidents once in a while. Most common are falls off of the wheelchair due to inclined surfaces. In this study, we reproduce the situation in which the wheel-chair runs on inclined surfaces, then we measure the physiological indices in order to evaluate the physical strains on human body when the wheelchair is inclined.