Low-cost portable shareable wheelchair mobility

描述（由申请人提供）：标准手动轮椅的使用者有时缺乏长时间旅行的耐力，或者可能暂时疲劳到需要辅助轮式移动。在养老院和辅助生活设施中使用手动轮椅的老年人，由于缺乏能力或缺乏自信，无法与流动伙伴一起进行长时间的旅行，他们的独立性受到限制。目前的手动轮椅动力附加装置价格昂贵，需要修改或半永久性机械适配器连接到椅子上。我们建议采用廉价的、批量生产的电动滑板车（两轮“站立式”），仅在需要时为手动轮椅提供动力。这些滑板车已经将可调节的前轮转向与动力控制、高续航电池和长寿命的电动驱动轮集成在一个紧凑、非常坚固、非常便宜的包装中。我们这个项目的目标是为滑板车生产一个简单的夹式电子电源控制器和一个非常低成本的模压塑料机械适配器，以方便和安全，但暂时，使这种电动滑板车为手动轮椅增加动力。我们提出了一个系统，不需要修改或螺丝上的附着点的轮椅。因此，动力系统可以根据需要在所有能够在老年人住宅设施中安全使用的手动轮椅使用者之间共享，也可以为其他可能因长期使用手动轮椅而疲劳的人共享。在SBIR第一阶段，我们将开发一种直观和安全的手部控制器，用于住宅设施的手动轮椅使用者，以控制我们基于滑板车的动力辅助装置。我们将改进我们的原型连接系统，将电动滑板车连接到手动轮椅上，我们将改进我们的电子马达动力控制夹式装置。我们将根据住宅设施建筑调查期间的测量结果，在测试轨道上评估滑板车/轮椅系统的性能。在SBIR第二阶段之前，我们不会对行动不便的受试者进行现场测试。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Users of standard manual wheelchairs sometimes lack the endurance for extended travel or may be temporarily fatigued enough to need assistance with wheeled mobility. Elderly manual wheelchair users in nursing homes and assisted living facilities find their independence restricted by their lack of ability or their self-confidence to embark on extended travel with ambulatory companions. Current manual wheelchair power add-on units are expensive and require modifications or semi-permanent mechanical adapters attached to the chair. We propose adapting inexpensive, mass-produced, electric scooters (the 2-wheel "stand-on" type) to provide powered mobility for manual wheelchairs only when needed. These scooters already integrate adjustable front wheel steering with power controls, high endurance batteries, and a long life motorized drive wheel in a compact, very robust, and very inexpensive package. Our goal for this project is to produce a simple clip-on electronic power controller for the scooter and a very low cost, molded plastic mechanical adapter to easily and safely, but temporarily, adapt such electric scooters to add power to manual wheelchairs. We propose a system that requires NO modifications or screw-on attachment points to the wheelchair. Thus, the power train can be shared, as needed, among all the manual wheelchair users capable of safely using it at residential facilities for the elderly and for others who may fatigue from extend use of manual wheelchairs. During SBIR Phase 1 we will develop an intuitive and safe hand controller for manual wheelchair users in residential facilities to control our scooter-based power assistance unit. We will refine our prototype attachment system to couple an electric scooter to a manual wheelchair, and we will refine our electronic motor power control clip-on unit. We will evaluate scooter/wheelchair system performance on test tracks based on measurements made during architectural surveys of residential facilities. We will not do field testing with mobility impaired subjects until SBIR Phase 2.