“…The anti-rollback system, for example 8 (Fig. 1 ), is mounted close to the rear wheel and the turn on/off lever (a) is located in a place where it may collide with the hand ending the cycle of propulsion 10 – 12 . Figure 1 Prototype of the anti-rollback system mounted on a wheelchair with a pushrim propulsion with the position of the control lever marked ( a ).…”
When designing wheelchair propulsion systems operated with the upper limb, there is a noticeable lack of ergonomic analyses informing about the areas on the wheelchair frame where hand-operated controls can be installed. With that in mind, a research goal was set to measure the areas of human hand reach within the area defined by the structural elements of a manual wheelchair. An ergonomic analysis was performed on a group of ten patients representing 50% of anthropometric dimensions. Motion capture and image analysis software based on the openCV library were used for the measurement. The conducted research resulted in the development of a map of the hands range in the lateral plane of the wheelchair, parallel to the sagittal plane. In addition, the map was divided into three zones of hand reach, taking into account various levels of comfort of hand manipulation. The total hand reach area was 1269 mm long and 731 mm high, while the most comfortable manipulation area was 352 mm long and 649 mm high. The plotted hands reach areas act as a map informing the designer where on the sagittal plane additional accessories operated by the user can be installed.
“…The anti-rollback system, for example 8 (Fig. 1 ), is mounted close to the rear wheel and the turn on/off lever (a) is located in a place where it may collide with the hand ending the cycle of propulsion 10 – 12 . Figure 1 Prototype of the anti-rollback system mounted on a wheelchair with a pushrim propulsion with the position of the control lever marked ( a ).…”
When designing wheelchair propulsion systems operated with the upper limb, there is a noticeable lack of ergonomic analyses informing about the areas on the wheelchair frame where hand-operated controls can be installed. With that in mind, a research goal was set to measure the areas of human hand reach within the area defined by the structural elements of a manual wheelchair. An ergonomic analysis was performed on a group of ten patients representing 50% of anthropometric dimensions. Motion capture and image analysis software based on the openCV library were used for the measurement. The conducted research resulted in the development of a map of the hands range in the lateral plane of the wheelchair, parallel to the sagittal plane. In addition, the map was divided into three zones of hand reach, taking into account various levels of comfort of hand manipulation. The total hand reach area was 1269 mm long and 731 mm high, while the most comfortable manipulation area was 352 mm long and 649 mm high. The plotted hands reach areas act as a map informing the designer where on the sagittal plane additional accessories operated by the user can be installed.
“…This division results from observations of the path of the hand movement [10][11][12] and the two distinct parts, in which the hand holds the handrims and then freely returns to the starting position. The propelling phase is when the hand holds the handrims and the muscular system generates the propelling force [13,14] that is delivered to the propulsion wheel. The return phase is when the hand returns freely to the starting position.…”
The movement of a wheelchair with manual propulsion depends on the kinematics of the human body and the forces exerted by the muscles. To design innovative wheelchair propulsion systems, the biomechanical parameters resulting from human interaction in this anthropotechnical system must be formalised. The research objectives were thus adopted: an analysis of the propulsion wheel angle of rotation resulting from the hand movement’s trajectory and the mathematical formalisation of the propulsion wheel angle of rotation described as a function of the propelling phase’s duration. The research was carried out using three variants of manually propelled wheelchairs on a group of 10 patients representing the same group (C50) of anthropometric dimensions. The research demonstrated that the function of the propulsion wheel angle of rotation shows the features of central symmetry occurring at an angle of rotation of φ 52° and a propelling phase duration of 58%. Moreover, the measurements were averaged and a mathematical model of the propulsion wheel rotation function during the propulsion phase was developed, depending on the percentage of duration.
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