Design of Indoor-Outdoor mobility wheelchair for low resourced settings

Abstract

This article describes the design of indoor-outdoor mobility wheelchair for Indian settings. The design of such a wheelchair has not been available for the low resourced settings. This work developed a prototype wheelchair with features to provide variable elevation of seat (elevation of 300 mm: seat height from floor -500 mm to 850 mm), 360 degree rotations of seat and ease of seat transfer to make the wheelchair relevant for accessibility in indoor settings. The device is powered by a battery (24 V 18 Ah LifePo4) and electric motor (350 watt with driving speed up to 20 km/hour) thereby making it suitable for indoor use rather than conventional fossil fuel powered vehicles. Its additional feature of having visibility from other vehicles, front light, and ability of driving on different terrains make it suitable for outdoor use. The mobility wheelchair is affordable (manufacturing cost for prototype was around 325 US $) in India. We have further provided justification for all the technical specifications of the components we used. The wheelchair was fabricated locally in our workshop.