The objective of the AccesSim project is to design a wheelchair simulator using Virtual Reality and a robotic platform to detect and illustrate accessibility issues in complex environments. In order to be efficient, the robotic platform must provide haptic and vestibular feedbacks to different profile of end users: urbanists to wheelchair users. It must be modular and adaptable to each one of them. In this paper we focus our robotic platform capable of adapting its configuration and feedback rendering based on the user. The design of the platform is described. The capacity of the platform to reproduce the motion of a wheelchair in a specific study case is tested experimentally. Finally the results introduce the possibility of adapting the dynamic feedback rendering based on a specific user and environmental situations.

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This paper presents the mechatronic design of the Gyrolift chair, a new type of wheelchair associated with a personal transporter and equipped with a verticalization system. The verticalization system is designed to help users to reach a standing posture. This module allows disabled people to move from the seated position to the standing position. Thanks to this system people can stand safely and interact with objects in the environment that cannot be reached from the seated postion. The major contribution of this research is the design of a mechatronic system, defined by the morphology of the user, to enable suitable verticalization. A biomechanical model is also detailed to define morphological trajectories for the embedded verticalisation system. Experiments were carried out to evaluate and validate the system.

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