Custom wheelchair seats can be used to help prevent pressure ulcers in individuals with spinal cord injury. In this study, a strap-based system was evaluated in three Veterans with spinal cord injury. Interface pressure distributions were measured after transfers, wheeling, and pressure relief maneuvers and after fittings by three different therapists. We found that pressure distribution measur...

For an environment to be well suited for wheelchair use not only should it be sufficiently clear of obstacles so that the wheelchair can navigate it, it should also be properly designed so that critical devices such as light switches can be reached by the hand of the wheelchair user. Given a goal location, explicitly calculating a path of the wheelchair and the person sitting in it so that they...

This paper describes a semi-autonomous wheelchair enabled with “HelpStar” that provides a user who is visually impaired with mobility independence. Our “HelpStar” enabled semi-autonomous wheelchair functions more like a personal assistant, allowing much greater user independence. When the user finds themself in an unforeseen circumstance, the “HelpStar” feature can be activated to allow a remot...

in the development of a guidance system for a powered wheelchair. Preliminary investigation of a semi-autonomous robotic wheelchair directed through electrodes.

BACKGROUND There are approximately 1 billion people living with chronic lower limb disability, many of whom are wheelchair users. OBJECTIVES Review cardiometabolic and neuromuscular risk profiles of wheelchair users, benefits of regular exercise and the causes of neuromuscular upper limb and hip injuries that hinder regular adherence. METHOD Literature published between 2013 and 2017 was ad...

INTRODUCTION Extended manual wheelchair use has been associated with repetitive strain injuries in the shoulder and has been identified as a contributing factor to upper limb pain experienced by manual wheelchair users with spinal cord injury (SCI) [1]. Due to the nature of their SCI, individuals with tetraplegia (formerly quadriplegia) may be at an even greater risk for developing shoulder inj...

Smart wheelchairs that can detect and avoid obstacles have been developed with the goal of serving as mobility aids for persons with disabilities who find standard power wheelchairs difficult or impossible to use [58]. By improving mobility and autonomy, they have the potential to improve the health of populations ranging from the severely disabled to the growing numbers of aging people [13]. W...

This paper describes the firsts results of a project of simulator for powered wheelchair, using Virtual Reality. We have simulated the kinematics of an existing intelligent wheelchair, which was designed in order to facilitate the driving of a powered wheelchair. We also present the integration of modeled ultrasonic sensors in the simulation.

BACKGROUND Reclining wheelchair users often add one or more sitting assistive devices to their wheelchairs, but the effect of these additional sitting assistive devices on the risk of pressure ulcers has rarely been investigated. This study examined the four modes of reclining wheelchair without and with different sitting assistive devices, namely the back reclined mode, the lumbar support with...

Pediatric manual wheelchair users (MWU) require high joint demands on their upper extremity (UE) during wheelchair mobility, leading them to be at risk of developing pain and pathology. Studies have examined UE biomechanics during wheelchair mobility in the adult population; however, current methods for evaluating UE joint dynamics of pediatric MWU are limited. An inverse dynamics model is prop...