Abstract
A wheelchair user makes direct contact with the wheelchair seat, which serves as the interface between the user and the wheelchair, for much of any given day. Seat adjustment design is of crucial importance in providing proper seating posture and comfort. This paper presents a multiple-DOF (degrees of freedom) seat adjustment mechanism, which is intended to increase the independence of the wheelchair user while maintaining a concise structure, light weight, and intuitive control interface. This four-axis Stewart platform is capable of heaving, pitching, and swaying to provide seat elevation, tilt-in-space, and sideways movement functions. The geometry and types of joints of this mechanism are carefully arranged so that only one actuator needs to be controlled, enabling the wheelchair user to adjust the seat by simply pressing a button. The seat is also equipped with soft pressure-sensing pads to provide pressure management by adjusting the seat mechanism once continuous and concentrated pressure is detected. Finally, by comparing with the manual wheelchair, the proposed mechanism demonstrated the easier and more convenient operation with less effort for transfer assistance.
Highlights
Many elderly people have mobility impairment that requires them to use a wheelchair
This paper presents the multiple‐degrees of freedom (DOF) seat adjustment mechanism of the “intelligent Robotic Wheelchair”
The multiple‐DOF seat adjustment mechanism developed in this research is capable of heaving, pitching, and swaying to provide a comfortable sitting posture, a seat elevation adjustment function, and transfer activities assistance
Summary
Many elderly people have mobility impairment that requires them to use a wheelchair. In addition to providing mobility assistance, seat adjustment design is of crucial importance in a wheelchair. Tilt‐in‐space, backrest recline, and seat elevation are the seat adjustment functions of electrical wheelchairs most prescribed by clinicians to facilitate posture change and/or assist activities of daily living (ADL) for users [9,10]. In addition to providing seating comfort and pressure management, the seat elevation function for wheelchair users is considered medically necessary [16, 17]. Bostelman and Albus [32] built a “Home Lift, Position and Rehabilitation (HLPR) Chair” to provide independent mobility and transfer activities assistance for the user in an indoor. The multiple‐DOF seat adjustment mechanism developed in this research is capable of heaving, pitching, and swaying to provide a comfortable sitting posture, a seat elevation adjustment function, and transfer activities assistance.
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