Development of wheelchair with assistive power unit

Abstract

A wheelchair with an assistive power unit employing a differential gear is now under development. The wheelchair is specially aimed to those who have a little residual power to drive a manual wheelchair, but often use a powered wheelchair. People who have C5 or C6 level spinal cord injury or the aged who have lower limb impairment are initially considered. The purpose is to encourage them to keep their residual ability or even to improve it by adjusting the assistive power. In addition to performance tests following JIS test procedures, 11 subjects, manual wheelchair users, tried the prototype and found its operation easy and that it is helpful while ascending or descending a slope.