Manual Wheelchair Utilizing Single Lever for Propulsion

采用单杆推进的手动轮椅

• 批准号: 7034635
• 负责人: Bart Kylstra
• 金额: $ 38.07万
• 依托单位: DAEDALUS WINGS, INC.
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2002
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2002-11-01 至 2007-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/7034635
• 关键词: assistive device /technology; biomechanics; biomedical equipment development; biomedical equipment safety; body movement; clinical research; clinical trials; ergonomics; functional ability; human subject; injury prevention; medical rehabilitation related tag; person with disability; quality of life; rehabilitation; repetitive motion injury

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): An innovative manual wheelchair design concept that utilizes a lever for propulsion has been developed. It is well documented that levers promote a natural and efficient propulsion motion. Pushrim wheelchairs require an awkward motion that leads to injuries of the shoulders, elbows, and wrists for the majority of the 1.4 million users in the United States. These limitations also force users into power wheelchairs prematurely. The opportunity for rehabilitation is then lost. Lever propelled wheelchairs have not been widely successful due to their unintuitive operation and poor maneuverability, excessive weight, size, and complexity, or lack of important design features such as multiple gear ratios. The proposed design meets all the requirements formulated by users and wheelchair design experts. The design utilizes a single lever for propulsion located in front of the user's knees. Steering and braking is accomplished with a bicycle-style handlebar interface at the top of the lever. The lever propulsion mechanism was tested in Phase I and exceeded all the functionality and robustness requirements. A unique wheelchair design that fully exploits the advantages of the mechanism has been developed. A complete prototype will be built and fully tested in Phase II, including extensive user testing. The result will be a fully developed stand-alone product poised to create a new market segment between pushrim and power wheelchairs. A finance, production, and marketing plan appropriate for the unique characteristics of both the wheelchair market and this product has been developed.

描述（由申请人提供）：已经开发出一种创新的手动轮椅设计概念，该概念利用杠杆进行推进。有据可查的是，杠杆可以促进自然且高效的推进运动。 Pushrim 轮椅需要笨拙的动作，这会导致美国 140 万使用者中的大多数人的肩膀、肘部和手腕受伤。这些限制也迫使用户过早地使用电动轮椅。然后就失去了康复的机会。 由于操作不直观、可操作性差、重量过大、尺寸过大和复杂性，或者缺乏重要的设计特征（例如多个齿轮比），杠杆驱动轮椅尚未获得广泛成功。拟议的设计满足用户和轮椅设计专家提出的所有要求。 该设计利用位于用户膝盖前方的单个推进杆。转向和制动是通过控制杆顶部的自行车式车把接口完成的。杠杆推进机构在第一阶段进行了测试，超出了所有功能和坚固性要求。一种独特的轮椅设计已被开发出来，充分利用了该机制的优势。完整的原型将在第二阶段构建并进行全面测试，包括广泛的用户测试。 其结果将是一款完全开发的独立产品，有望在推轮轮椅和电动轮椅之间创建一个新的细分市场。已经制定了适合轮椅市场和该产品独特特征的财务、生产和营销计划。