Hi,
I’m new to the forum! My name is Joe and I’m an engineering student at Oxford University. This year I am working with three of my colleagues to design a semi-autonomous electric wheelchair for use by people diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy or Parkinson’s disease. In the project we will be taking an existing electric wheelchair and looking to build onto it a system which will aid the user with going about their daily lives. To give you an idea, we are currently looking at how the wheelchair can be controlled during an onset of tremors, or other debilitating symptoms, but the scope for what we can do is quite broad.
Although within the group we have experience of working with people with disabilities, none of us have first hand knowledge of the diseases, the symptoms, or the effects they have on people’s lives. The reason I have come to this forum is to ask for your help and valuable knowledge to develop our project.
We are specifically looking at an age group of between 20 and 50 years of age, and those who use or have used electric wheelchairs. Although we would welcome input from everybody. I ask you to get in touch and tell us about your experiences of using the wheelchairs: positives, negatives, ways you feel they could be improved. We would also like to know about how these diseases affect everyday life, to build a picture of the needs and requirements of the user. Obviously these experiences vary a lot between each person, but having done some research we will look to narrow this down to some key issues and perhaps focus on case studies of a few people.
I must stress this is a research project, and there is no commercial aspect to it. For this year the project is purely theoretical, however should we come up with something good we may well continue the development next year as this is a subject we all feel passionate about.
Feel free to comment on the forum, or you can contact me via email if you prefer: [email removed by Moderator]
Thank you for your help in advance, your time is much appreciated. Joe
A few of my thoughts to get you started:
The ability to cope with kerbs so that you can cross the road without waiting for opposing dropped kerbs.
A lighter version that would easily fit into a car
As narrow as possible - electric wheelchairs take up quite a bit of space when in shops and need decent doorways in the home.
As above but also at times I find gripping things like knives,forks,toothbrushes,the steering stick on the wheelchair are too narrow to grip so a fatter control stick would help. My daily problems include weakness,severe fatigue,stiffness,painful joints and back. An example when using the wheelchair outside I often get so stiff that I almost set in the position I’m in. Extra support in the material might help and the ability to recline the back but not as obvious as in the more specialised wheelchairs. Pm if you need any more personal information.
Hi guys,
Thanks for your replies. We’re going to focus on an outdoor rear wheel drive chair. The main tasks would be getting to the shops or to work, and other outdoor activities, like going to the park. Do you find any problems specific to these kind of tasks?
As we are modifying an existing chair altering weight and size is unlikely. The problems with curbs is something we are looking at. Do you have experience with any of the current curb-climbers?
Anita we are looking at different methods of controlling the chair, including different styles of joysticks. What do you think of voice control, motion controlled (for example gesturing with hands) or chin control (tracking chin movement to steer) ? We’ll be using a combination of control methods so if you become unable to operate the joystick, you could for example tell the chair where you wanted to go. We may also make the chair able to drive itself unaided. How would you feel about it doing that?
Also we are interested in the comfort of the chair. We had a few ideas, including reclining just the back, tilting the whole seat back, independently adjustable panels on the back to provide different seating positions/postures. What do you think?
Thanks again. Joe