Development & Testing of the Single Motor Propelled Wheelchair For India & other

描述(由申请人提供)：全球需要约6500万辆轮椅，而印度等资源较少环境中的轮椅面临着以负担得起的价格获得能够提供功能移动性的设备的严峻挑战。几十年的证据表明，转让低成本的西式手动焊接并不能满足需求，因为这些设备难以推进，在LRE有时极端的环境中过早失效，而且通常无法使用本土工具和材料进行修复。一些组织正在加紧国际努力，通过设计适当的手册WCs并在LRE中建立临床和技术资源来满足持续的需求，以解决这些缺点。不幸的是，这些努力并没有满足那些将从电动轮椅(EPW)中受益的人的需求，低成本的西式设备正开始挤占市场，尽管它们表现不佳，过早失败，在某些情况下已经在西方市场停产。为了避免转让西式人工垃圾后出现的陷阱，应该设计一种负担得起的EPW，以满足居住在LRE的个人的需求。为了满足这一需要，已经完成了一项多年的努力，收集了人种学数据，并在印度坎普尔的印度假肢制造公司(ALIMCO)和印度新德里的印度脊柱损伤中心(ISIC)开发和评估了单机动推进轮椅(SIMPL-WC)的原型。这里提出的研究的目的是最终完成SIMPL-WC的开发和测试，并将设计移交给印度的EPW制造商进行商业化。人类工程研究实验室(HELL)的工程师构思了SIMPL-WC，他们将根据印度受试者的反馈实施设计更改，并将设计转移到ISIC，一家印度EPW制造商(鸵鸟移动)将制造五个SIMPL-WC。这些设备中的三个将在Herl根据国际轮椅标准(ISO 7176)进行测试，ISIC的潜在用户将评估其余两个。将根据Herl和ISIC的测试结果进行设计更改，然后鸵鸟移动公司将生产13辆更新的SIMPL-WC。其中三个设备将在Herl接受ISO测试，印度用户将在ISIC协调的一项研究中使用其余10个设备进行家庭试验。在ISO和人体试验的这两次迭代之后，鸵鸟移动公司将把SIMPL-WC商业化。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Approximately 65 million wheelchairs (WCs) are needed worldwide, and those in less-resourced environments (LREs), such as India, are faced with the difficult challenge of accessing devices that can provide functional mobility for an affordable price. Decades of evidence has revealed that transferring low-cost western-style manual WCs does not address the need because these devices are challenging to propel, fail prematurely in the sometimes extreme environments of LREs, and often cannot be repaired with indigenous tools and materials. Several organizations are mounting international efforts to address these shortcomings by designing appropriate manual WCs and establishing clinical and technical resources in LREs to meet the ongoing need. Unfortunately, these efforts have not addressed the needs of people who would benefit from electric powered wheelchairs (EPWs), and low-cost western style devices are beginning to crowd the market despite the fact they perform poorly, fail prematurely, and in some cases have been discontinued in the western markets. To avoid the pitfalls that occurred after transferring western-style manual WCs, an affordable EPW should be designed that can meet the needs of individuals living in LREs. To address this need, a multi-year effort has been completed which gathered ethnographic data and developed and evaluated a prototype of the Single Motor Propelled Wheelchair (SIMPL-WC) at the Artificial Limbs Manufacturing Corporation of India (ALIMCO) in Kanpur, India and at the Indian Spinal Injuries Center (ISIC) in New Delhi, India. The aim of the research proposed here is to finalize the development and testing of the SIMPL-WC and transfer the design to an EPW manufacturer in India for commercialization. Engineers at the Human Engineering Research Labs (HERL) who conceived of the SIMPL-WC will implement design changes based on feedback from Indian subjects and will transfer the design to ISIC and an Indian EPW manufacturer (Ostrich Mobility) will fabricate five SIMPL-WCs. Three of these devices will be tested according to International Wheelchair Standards (ISO 7176) at HERL, and potential users at ISIC will evaluate the remaining two. Design changes will be made based on results of the testing at HERL and ISIC, and Ostrich Mobility will then manufacture 13 of the updated SIMPL-WC. Three of these devices will undergo ISO testing at HERL and Indian users will use the remaining 10 for in-home trials in a study coordinated at ISIC. After these two iterations of ISO and human-subjects testing, Ostrich Mobility will commercialize the SIMPL-WC.