An Optimized Design of the Standard Manual Wheelchair

Abstract

The manual wheel chair is commonly found in hospitals, rehabilitation centres, senior housing and airports for allowing patients, people with physical disabilities or for elderly people. Transferring mishaps are one of the major causes for injuries. Moreover, all the transferring actions between wheelchair and other surfaces are difficult for wheelchair users. This project is aimed at optimizing the existing design of a standard manual wheelchair by introducing a height adjusting mechanism along with a mechanism for sliding the seat of the wheelchair so as to facilitate easy movement of the occupant who is either disabled or aged with minimal support from the attendant. For this purpose, initially a 3D CAD model of the wheel chair along with the required mechanisms is to be designed.