Development of the device of handicapped person to transfer ourdoors in winter season

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1. To investigate the influence of cold exposure to the patient with spinal cord injury, we measured the change of blood pressure, tissue blood flow and body temperature when the patient were moved in the cold room. When normal persons were exposed to cold, tissue blood flow decreased rapidly and BP increased gradually, but the spinal cord injured person's tissue blood flow and BP showed no change. So the patient has no sympathetic flow response that the core temperature of body is expected to decrease easily on the time of cold exposure.2. Not only the handicapped person but also the old-aged person who live in Hokkaido, the most northern island in Japan, are hoping for the realization on their more ourdoor activities, during the winter season when it has much snow and low temperature. Actually, most of them must be out of doors even if during the coldest season in the winter, to go shopping and hospitals, et al. The main device to transfer outdoors is wheelchairs. There are, however, many problems pointed out on wheelchairs to use during the winter ; very slippery on the road with snow and ice, casters were easy to bury in snow, and the rim of wheelchairs is too cold to handle. Therefore, it is strong necessary that the appropriate wheelchair for riding outdoors in the winter season is developed. In this work, an electric wheelchair with front-driving is developing to be satisfied with thus requirements. The design concept of it and the road ability test on iced or snowed road are reported.