Turning characteristics and stability of manual wheelchairs on a slope

Author

Ohnabe, H. ; Mizuguchi, F.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Biocybernetics, Niigata Univ., Japan

Volume

2

fYear

2001

fDate

2001

Firstpage

1408

Abstract

Wheelchairs will be in ever greater demand in a rapidly aging society. Because of the special needs of aging users, due to frailty and reduced reflexes in many cases, it is important to give careful consideration to rather fundamental design properties. Inter alia it is very important to define, clarify and design running, turning and stability properties of the highest standards in manual wheelchairs. In particular we discuss these matters in regard to wheelchair behavior on sloping surfaces. In the present paper we report on an analytical model for a 4 wheel manual wheelchair which shows good correlation with the existing experimental data relating to torque and speed when the wheelchair is moving on a level plane and when climbing a 3 degree slope. The rolling stability of the wheelchair on a slope is also discussed.

Keywords

geriatrics; handicapped aids; mechanical stability; modelling; torque; 3 degree slope; aging users; analytical model; frailty; fundamental design properties; level plane; manual wheelchairs stability; rapidly aging society; reduced reflexes; rolling stability; running properties; support devices for independent movement; turning characteristics; Aging; Analytical models; Cybernetics; Mechanical engineering; Roads; Stability; Torque; Turning; Wheelchairs; Wheels;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, 2001. Proceedings of the 23rd Annual International Conference of the IEEE

ISSN

1094-687X

Print_ISBN

0-7803-7211-5

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IEMBS.2001.1020465

Filename

1020465