SBIR Phase II: A portable, powered lift to instantly increase independence of all manual wheelchair users

这项小型企业创新研究（SBIR）第二期的广泛影响/商业潜力是改善轮椅使用者的行动能力。美国有超过250万轮椅使用者。该项目将开发一种电子售后附加配件，使手动轮椅使用者的身高在5秒内增加到18英寸或更多。新的轮椅升降机（WL）将提高他们的生活质量和独立进行日常生活活动（进食、洗澡、穿衣）和日常生活工具活动（交通、购物、烹饪、洗衣和家务）的能力。该解决方案将取代昂贵的家庭改造（2万美元），并将减少对外部环境帮助的需求，例如伸手取货架上的物品，赋予用户权力。轮候册旨在缩小残疾人士与健全人士之间的差距，提高轮椅使用者的劳动参与率（目前只有20%），并提供更多就业选择。同样，轮候册会为雇主提供一个有效的方法，以支援残疾工人，并降低成本，以调整工作环境，提供合理的便利。这项小型企业创新研究第二期计划旨在制造轮椅升降机的最终功能原型，以便与最终用户进行可用性测试。第二阶段项目扩展了先前的原型工作，满足了重量、提升最大载荷和提升时间的主要设计规范，降低了与项目相关的最重大技术挑战的风险。拟议的活动将使硬件和电子发展的系统工程和下一代测试和管理许可的原型成为可能。原型机将在质量管理体系下生产，并将建立一个工业制造过程。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II is to improve the mobility of wheelchair users. There are more than 2.5 M wheelchair users in the US. This project will develop an electronic aftermarket add-on accessory to increase manual wheelchair users’ height up to 18 inches or more in 5 seconds. The new wheelchair lift (WL) will increase their Quality of Life and their ability to independently perform activities of daily living (feeding, bathing, dressing) and instrumental activities of daily living (transportation, shopping, cooking, doing laundry, and housework). The solution will replace expensive home retrofitting ($20 K) and will reduce the need for help in outside settings, such as reaching for items on shelves, empowering the users. The WL will bridge the gap between the disabled and the able-bodied population, providing a means to increase wheelchair users’ participation in the labor force (currently only 20%) and enabling more employment options. Similarly, the WL will offer employers an effective way to support workers with disabilities and reduce costs to adapt the work environment to provide reasonable accommodations.This Small Business Innovation Research Phase II project seeks to generate a final functional prototype of the wheelchair lift (WL) ready for usability tests with end-users. The Phase II project extends prior work on a prototype satisfying the major design specifications of weight, lift maximum load, and time of ascension, de-risking the most significant technological challenges associated with the project. The proposed activities will enable systems engineering of hardware and electronics development and the next generation prototype for testing and regulatory clearance. The prototype will be produced under Quality Management Systems and an industrial manufacturing process will be established.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.