Shawn Wright
Redesign of the Wheelchair Trainer
The purpose of this device is to help disabled children learn how to use a powered wheelchair. Currently for a disabled person to have their insurance provide a powered wheelchair they have to prove they are able to use it. Many handicapped children have the potential to use a powered wheel chair but have no experience using one. This causes a problem where they cannot get a powered chair without knowing how to use it, and cannot learn how to use it without the chair. This device solves this problem by providing a temporary means for these children to learn how to use a powered wheel chair. Access to a powered wheel chair can provide a significant improvement to the quality of their lives. Such as it can provide mobility to those children who are unable to move their wheel chair under their own power.
This device has gone through some revisions at the engineering school in the past couple years. These revisions have fallen short of the needs of the problem. The purpose of this student summer scholars project is to make a new revision that is able to overcome the previous challenges.
The main challenges to this design involve the layout of the frame of the trainer. The previous designs incorporated the drivetrain in such a way that it made it very awkward to load a wheel chair. This layout also prevented the unit from being able to be used on larger individuals; it was underpowered. Also due to the frame, it was unable to accommodate the majority of children's wheelchairs. It was designed around a standard adult wheel chair.
The most significant change in design with the new trainer is that the drive train is located below the user, underneath a platform. The unit is designed so that it has a 30"x40" flat platform in which to secure a manual wheel chair to. This provides many advantages. It allows the drive wheels to go closer to the center of mass of the unit, increasing it's maneuverability. A flat platform also allows wheel chairs with odd size wheels to be used in this device, many wheelchairs that did not fit on the old trainers.
Faculty Mentors: Christopher Pung, Engineering; John Farris, Engineering
Redesign of the Wheelchair Trainer
The purpose of this device is to help disabled children learn how to use a powered wheelchair. Currently for a disabled person to have their insurance provide a powered wheelchair they have to prove they are able to use it. Many handicapped children have the potential to use a powered wheel chair but have no experience using one. This causes a problem where they cannot get a powered chair without knowing how to use it, and cannot learn how to use it without the chair. This device solves this problem by providing a temporary means for these children to learn how to use a powered wheel chair. Access to a powered wheel chair can provide a significant improvement to the quality of their lives. Such as it can provide mobility to those children who are unable to move their wheel chair under their own power.
This device has gone through some revisions at the engineering school in the past couple years. These revisions have fallen short of the needs of the problem. The purpose of this student summer scholars project is to make a new revision that is able to overcome the previous challenges.
The main challenges to this design involve the layout of the frame of the trainer. The previous designs incorporated the drivetrain in such a way that it made it very awkward to load a wheel chair. This layout also prevented the unit from being able to be used on larger individuals; it was underpowered. Also due to the frame, it was unable to accommodate the majority of children's wheelchairs. It was designed around a standard adult wheel chair.
The most significant change in design with the new trainer is that the drive train is located below the user, underneath a platform. The unit is designed so that it has a 30"x40" flat platform in which to secure a manual wheel chair to. This provides many advantages. It allows the drive wheels to go closer to the center of mass of the unit, increasing it's maneuverability. A flat platform also allows wheel chairs with odd size wheels to be used in this device, many wheelchairs that did not fit on the old trainers.
Faculty Mentors: Christopher Pung, Engineering; John Farris, Engineering
Page last modified July 13, 2010
