Design History and Advantages of a New Lever-Propelled Wheelchair Prototype

Sarraj, Ahmad Rifai; Massarelli, R.

doi:10.5772/10669

Cited by 15 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…[38], [39]). Many of these are crank-propelled designs [40], though the most common alternative design is the lever-drive [41], [42], with several options commercially available [43]. However, few previously proposed alternative designs are linearly actuated like Boost, where movements are guided parallel to the armrest (see, however [44]).…”

Section: A Relationship To Previous Wheelchair Drive Designsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Dynamic Wheelchair Armrest for Promoting Arm Exercise and Mobility After Stroke

Comellas

Chan

Zondervan

et al. 2022

IEEE Trans. Neural Syst. Rehabil. Eng.

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Arm movement recovery after stroke can improve with sufficient exercise. However, rehabilitation therapy sessions are typically not enough. To address the need for effective methods of increasing arm exercise outside therapy sessions we developed a novel armrest, called Boost. It easily attaches to a standard manual wheelchair just like a conventional armrest and enables users to exercise their arm in a linear forward-back motion. This paper provides a detailed design description of Boost, the biomechanical analysis method to evaluate the joint torques required to operate it, and the results of pilot testing with five stroke patients. Biomechanics results show the required shoulder flexion and elbow extension torques range from -25% to +36% of the torques required to propel a standard pushrim wheelchair, depending on the direction of applied force. In pilot testing, all five participants were able to exercise the arm with Boost in stationary mode (with lower physical demand). Three achieved overground ambulation (with higher physical demand) exceeding 2 m/s after 2-5 practice trials; two of these could not propel their wheelchair with the pushrim. This simple to use, dynamic armrest provides people with hemiparesis a way to access repetitive arm exercise outside of therapy sessions, independently right in their wheelchair. Significantly, Boost removes the requirements to reach, grip, and release the pushrim to propel a wheelchair, an action many individuals with stroke cannot complete.

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Section: A Relationship To Previous Wheelchair Drive Designsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Dynamic Wheelchair Armrest for Promoting Arm Exercise and Mobility After Stroke

Comellas

Chan

Zondervan

et al. 2022

IEEE Trans. Neural Syst. Rehabil. Eng.

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show abstract

“…Wheelchairs are common personal assistive devices for individuals with locomotor disabilities. The lever propelling mechanism was applied to improve the performance of manual wheelchairs [1]. Although traveling by wheels on rigid frames is stable, safe, and consumes low energy, steps and stairs remain critical obstacles.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transformable Wheelchair–Exoskeleton Hybrid Robot for Assisting Human Locomotion

2023

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This paper presents a novel wheelchair–exoskeleton hybrid robot that can transform between sitting and walking modes. The lower-limb exoskeleton uses planetary-geared motors to support the hip and knee joints. Meanwhile, the ankle joints are passive. The left and right wheel modules can be retracted to the lower legs of the exoskeleton to prepare for walking or stepping over obstacles. The chair legs are designed to form a stable sitting posture to avoid falling while traveling on smooth surfaces with low energy consumption. Skateboard hub motors are used as the front driving wheels along with the rear caster wheels. The turning radius trajectory as the result of differential driving was observed in several scenarios. For assisting sit-to-stand motion, the desired joint velocities are commanded by the user while the damping of the motors is set. For stand-to-sit motion, the equilibrium of each joint is set to correspond to the standing posture, while stiffness is adjusted on the basis of assistive levels. The joint torques supported by the exoskeleton were recorded during motion, and leg muscle activities were studied via surface electromyography for further improvement.

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“…The straightforward upper-arm movement during leverpropulsion involves a much larger muscle mass, offers longer push phases and leads to lower strain compared to PRP [13]. Disadvantages are limited top speed of propulsion related to the frequency of the push and recovery phases combined with the absence of pausing between the pushing and pulling phases [13,14]. The hub-crank mechanism uses cranks that are directly mounted on the hubs of the rear wheels and so allow a continuous motion of the hands.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

In Vivo Biomechanical Assessment of a Novel Handle-Based Wheelchair Drive

Puchinger

Stefanek

Gstaltner

et al. 2021

IEEE Trans. Neural Syst. Rehabil. Eng.

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Push-rim wheelchair propulsion frequently causes severe upper limb injuries in people relying on the wheelchair for ambulation. To address this problem, we developed a novel handle-based wheelchair propulsion method that follows a cyclic motion within ergonomic joint ranges of motion. The aim of this study was to measure hand propulsion forces, joint excursions and net joint torques for this novel propulsion device and to compare its performance against traditional push-rim wheelchair propulsion. We hypothesized that under similar conditions, joint excursions of this novel handle-based device will remain within their ergonomic range and that the effectiveness of the propulsion forces will be higher, leading to lower average propulsion forces compared to push-rim propulsion and reducing the risk of injury.Eight paraplegic subjects propelled the new device at two different loads on a custom-made wheelchair-based test rig. Video motion capture and force sensors were used to monitor shoulder and wrist joint kinematics and kinetics. Shoulder and wrist loads were calculated using a modified upper-extremity Wheelchair Propulsion Model available in OpenSim.The results show that with this novel propulsion device joint excursions are within their recommended ergonomic ranges, resulting in a reduced range of motion of up to 30% at the shoulder and up to 80% at the wrist, while average resultant peak forces were reduced by up to 20% compared to push-rim propulsion. Furthermore, the lower net torques at both the shoulder and wrist demonstrate the potential of this novel propulsion system to reduce the risk of upper-extremity injuries.

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Design History and Advantages of a New Lever-Propelled Wheelchair Prototype

Cited by 15 publications

References 8 publications

A Dynamic Wheelchair Armrest for Promoting Arm Exercise and Mobility After Stroke

A Dynamic Wheelchair Armrest for Promoting Arm Exercise and Mobility After Stroke

Transformable Wheelchair–Exoskeleton Hybrid Robot for Assisting Human Locomotion

In Vivo Biomechanical Assessment of a Novel Handle-Based Wheelchair Drive

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