Design and development of an electric-powered stair-climbing wheelchair

In this paper, a new multi-function powered wheelchair is introduced, in which the driven mechanics are two sets of hybrid planetary wheels, each of them are consisted of one powered wheel and two free wheels. This wheelchair can work in three modes: stair-climbing mode, powered wheelchair mode and manual mode. In stair-climbing mode, an assistant can control the wheelchair to climb up and down stairs easily. In powered wheelchair mode, the user can control the motion of the wheelchair through a wheelchair controller. In manual mode, the wheelchair can be pushed conveniently by an assistant. Moreover, in order to guarantee the safety of the user, a special mechanism which is driven by an electric linear actuator is designed. The stair-surmounting capability, demand of motor torque and intensity of transmission shaft are also analyzed in this paper. The feasibility and practicability of this new multi-function powered wheelchair are also confirmed through the experiments of a prototype.