Autonomy in the area of mobility has always been highly valued, but is sometimes impaired by a disability. In many cases, this results in reliance on some form of external supporting mechanism. Wheelchair users may encounter a variety of obstacles in their daily activities based on their limitations. An optimum quality of life can be achieved through more freedom in mobility. The purpose of this project is to design and build a manual wheelchair equipped with assistive flattening and lifting mechanisms to elevate the user to a target level. The mechanism is based on a scissor lift connected to the respective footrest, seat, and backrest of the wheelchair. The unique functionality provided includes reclining and lifting the user to the desired bed level and giving the rolling capability for the user to move to and from the bed with ease. The components of the scissor lift are designed and a detail kinematic analysis of the mechanism is performed and simulated using Siemens-NX software package. The work is conducted by a team of three senior students of the manufacturing engineering (MANE) program at Virginia University as their senior project. A scaled to half size of the designed mechanism was fabricated and tested. The functionality of the both lifting and flattening mechanisms were successfully achieved.
展开▼
