POWERED WHEELCHAIR

Presented by, ANU MARIA PAUL S7 BME NO: 3

Wheelchair
wheelchairs were designed to provide the veteran some mobility within the hospital and home. Mobility among people with disabilities varies. Mobility is more of a functional limitation than a disability related condition.

There are two basic classes of wheelchairs: 1. manually powered 2. externally powered

Powered Wheelchairs
A power wheelchair may provide greater mobility. It may be best to suggest a power wheelchair for longer excursions.

Powered wheelchair bases can be classified as

1. rear-wheel drive (RWD) 2. mid-wheel drive (MWD) 3. front-wheel drive (FWD)

RWD
In RWD power bases, the drive wheels are behind the users center of gravity and the casters are in the front. RWD systems are the traditional design.

Advantage: RWD systems is its predictable drive characteristic and stability. Drawback: RWD system is its maneuverability in tight areas because of a larger turning radius.

MWD
In MWD power bases, the drive wheels are directly below the users CoG and generally have a set of casters or antitippers in front and rear of the drive wheels. Advantage :MWD system is of smaller turning radius to maneuver in tight spaces. Disadvantage: has a tendency to rock or pitch forward, especially with sudden stops or fast turns.

FWD
A FWD power base has the drive wheels in front of the users CoG, and it tends to be quite stable and provides a tight turning radius.

Advantage: may climb obstacles or curbs more easily as the large front wheels hit the obstacle first. Disadvantage : has more rearward CoG; therefore, the system may tend to fishtail and be difficult to drive in a straight line, especially on uneven surfaces.

Parts Of Powered wheelchair

Power Wheelchair Interfaces Proportional Position-Sensing Joystick Switched Inputs Force-Sensing Control Voice Control

Power Wheelchair Interfaces

Individuals with many types of disabilities use electric powered wheelchairs for mobility. These people use different types of control interfaces to operate powered wheelchairs. The joystick is the primary control interface.

choosing a control interface and a control site is based on disabilities.

Proportional Position-Sensing Joystick

The most common commercially available joystick in use today is a position-sensing joystick (PSJ), which is a proportional input device that controls the chair speed and direction according to the extent of joystick displacement

Switched Inputs
Durability is a primary consideration when choosing a control interface for a person with this disability. Switch array can be mounted on the wheelchair tray and accessed by the hand, head, and chin. Typically yields much lower performance than other proportional joysticks.

Force-Sensing Control

CONTD
An isometric Joystick does not use spherical or orthogonal pivots on the base of the stick; the shaft and handle are permanently fixed in a vertical position. The force vector exerted by the operators hand becomes the magnitude and direction of input. The isometric was superior to the positionsensing joystick for driving straight and for driving in a circle.

Voice Control
The voice control wheelchair system requires a voice processor that converts a preselected set of sounds spoken by the user into corresponding signals a computer can recognize. The sounds of commands are preprogrammed into the computer during a training session. These commands serve as the basis for comparison with the users command during use of the wheelchair.

Powered wheelchair velocity control scheme.

Thank you