Curb descent testing of suspension manual wheelchairs.

Influence of hand-rim wheelchairs with rear suspension on seat forces and head acceleration during curb descent landings.

OBJECTIVE Shocks and vibrations experienced while using a hand-rim wheelchair can contribute to discomfort, fatigue and injury. The aim of this study was to compare the seat forces and head accelerations experienced by manual wheelchair users during independent curb descent landings in a standard and 3 suspension-type rigid-frame wheelchairs. DESIGN EXPERIMENTAL repeated measures analysis ...

Control Strategy for Safe Descent of Power Assisted Wheelchair on Declining Road Using Regenerative Braking

Physically weak, senior and disabled citizens use manual wheelchairs to move around places. The electrical wheelchairs provide them this required support for movement. It is difficult to control manual wheelchairs on sloping roads and hence the use of electrical power assisted wheelchair is advantageous, which can be controlled by braking. This paper proposes a new braking control algorithm to ...

Evaluation of a curb-climbing aid for manual wheelchairs: considerations of stability, effort, and safety.

The experimental and theoretical procedures used to gather ergonomic data and derive theoretical estimates of stability, effort, and safety in use of a curb-climbing aid for standard manual wheelchairs are presented. The aid, intended for use of paraplegic persons, employs ramps which the user while seated in the chair can deploy and retrieve using attached telescoping rods. Ramps and rods may ...

Performance Analysis of Suspension Manual Wheelchairs

Effect of rear suspension and speed on seat forces and head accelerations experienced by manual wheelchair riders with spinal cord injury.

Whole-body shocks and vibrations experienced during manual wheelchair use can decrease an individual's comfort, increase the rate of fatigue, result in injury, and consequently limit mobility and community participation. We used a wheelchair-vibration simulator to examine whether the seat reaction forces experienced by wheelchair users were differentially influenced by wheelchair suspension, tr...