• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
• /
• v.27 no.3
• /
• pp.23-32
• /
• 2008

This study attempts to develop improved ingress and egress in vehicle for disabled wheelchair people who driving is available, after investigating the ingress and egress relation demand and the inconvenient factor in the vehicle. An experiment was performed for that disabled wheelchair people to analyze the characteristics of ingress and egress relation operation through the questionnaire survey and the camera photographing. The results suggest various improvements possibilities in inside handlebar as a main factor. Through analysis of disabled wheelchair person's ingress and egress tendency, the alternative shape and position of inside handlebar are suggested. Also, this paper aimed to draw ingress and egress improvement proposal by executing a verification experiment and collecting the preferences from disabled people.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
• /
• 2001.06c
• /
• pp.464-469
• /
• 2001

This work provides the biomechanical evaluations of a manual wheelchair with a bi-directional driving system. The new propulsion strategy can be accomplished by employing a special gear system that converts the oscillatory motion of a handrim into the unidirectional output motion of a wheel. A main feature of the forward. backward propulsion is to supply continuous driving torque without break. Motion. analysis has been performed through 2-dimensional image processing for measuring the kinematic properties of the upper arm and fore arm. Then, the inverse dynamics analysis has been done for obtaining the joint torques, the handrim forces and input/output powers. Results show that the output power by the forward. reverse propulsion is almost twice as much as that by conventional propulsion. Also, the new propulsion is expected to reduce the fatigues and injuries at arm joints by employing more muscle groups for movement. In conclusion, the forward. reverse propulsion can greatly improve the performances of manual wheelchairs by providing better mobility as well as by guaranteeing several advantages from a biomechanical viewpoint. Future development of a manual wheelchair optimized for the bi-directional propulsion will further improve the propulsion performances.

• Journal of rehabilitation welfare engineering & assistive technology
• /
• v.5 no.1
• /
• pp.103-110
• /
• 2011

In this paper, we propose a gaze recognition interface for smart wheelchair. The gaze recognition interface is a user interface which recognize the commands using the gaze recognition and avoid the detected obstacles by sensing the distance through range sensors on the way to driving. Smart wheelchair is composed of gaze recognition and tracking module, user interface module, obstacle detector, motor control module, and range sensor module. The interface in this paper uses a camera with built-in infra red filter and 2 LED light sources to see what direction the pupils turn to and can send command codes to control the system, thus it doesn't need any correction process per each person. The results of the experiment showed that the proposed interface can control the system exactly by recognizing user's gaze direction.

• International journal of advanced smart convergence
• /
• v.9 no.3
• /
• pp.199-206
• /
• 2020

A wheelchair is an essential rehabilitation assistant device for the movement of paraplegia patients and generally paralyzed patients who cannot walk normally. In particular, the applicability of the manual/motorized wheelchair is gradually increasing. Until now, decelerators using belt, chain and worm gears, etc have been widely used. However, a decelerator takes a large space although it is a simple device and thus is not ideal for the driving part of manual/motorized wheelchair. For these reasons, in this study we developed a driving part producing a large driving force through a decelerator using planetary gears rather than conventional worm gear-based decelerator. We designed the tooth profile of the planetary gears for decelerator using Kisssoft program, In addition, we designed the driving part so as to apply it to the wheels of conventional wheelchairs, and then optimized the mechanism for the principles of manual/motorized transposition of the driving part and the operational principles. Based on the results of this study, we finally designed and manufactured a driving part for wheelchair decelerator in the form of planetary gears with 1 sun gear, 2 planetary gears and 1 ring gear.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
• /
• v.28 no.9
• /
• pp.1110-1118
• /
• 2011

The recent power add-on drive wheelchairs (PADWs) provide greater physical activity and easier transportability and may be an excellent alternative for the typical manual and powered wheelchairs. The driving system consists of a motor and a motor driver is the most important component of the PADW In this paper, design, implementation, and testing of a driving system for a PADW are presented. To design the output power and torque for the driving system, the equation of motion has been investigated. The motor and driver were fabricated with precise machining and assembled to implement our prototype driving system. The dynamometer test has been carried out using the prototype in order to examine the torque of the system. The experimental results demonstrates that the designed driving system can provide enough output power and efficiency for utilization in a PADW.

• International Journal of Internet, Broadcasting and Communication
• /
• v.15 no.1
• /
• pp.97-112
• /
• 2023

The purpose of this study is to design and test a new way of public transportation route guidance system for persons with disabilities, including wheelchair users. The guidance system is smartphone app-based, using, routes that involve disabled-friendly facilities in the vicinity can be searched. A database that contains publicly available data on low-floor bus services, location and extent of disabled-friendly facilities, and suitable subways and stations, was developed for this purpose. The app uses the database to access and query the required information. A pilot study was conducted to test the effectiveness of the guidance system. It was found that the system was able to convey information about the disabled-friendly routes and related guidance information even inside subway stations, effectively. The performance of the system was compared with route guidance services that do not explicitly use data on disabled-friendly services. A notable difference was observed in the travel time estimated by this program and other guidance services. The difference was around 4 to 15 minutes. This is significant savings for persons with disabilities if they use the app and service. The study thus shows that exclusive use of disabled-friendly data in route guidance will bring more benefits for persons with disabilities.

• Journal of Digital Contents Society
• /
• v.16 no.3
• /
• pp.355-363
• /
• 2015

In this paper, we propose a system for controlling the seat of the electric wheelchair depending on the slope of the terrain in real time by using the ATmega smart control based on the board. Smart control board includes a gyro sensor, an acceleration sensor and Tilt sensor, when the electric wheelchairs pass slope of the terrain, they use three sensors to identify terrain configuration in real time. We also applied the Complementary Filter in the gyro sensor and acceleration sensor, so the electric wheelchairs know the exact terrain by solving the interference during the movement. Based on this, the noise power wheelchair due to the movement will be reduced, the seat continues reliably movement without being vibration. In this paper, providing an application on the smart phone platform for the convenience of users who are not familiar with how to use electric wheelchairs, they can easily control wheelchairs. Control platform of the smart phone is able to monitor the electric wheelchair in real-time, with regard to pressure prevention, help the slope of the seat to be arbitrarily controlled.

• Journal of Digital Contents Society
• /
• v.19 no.8
• /
• pp.1507-1514
• /
• 2018

The purpose of this study was to propose a functional improvement solution of integrated control board for safe driving of Smart electric wheelchair for a single person. In the case of existing electric wheelchair products in Korea and elsewhere, safety-related functions or devices are not included in many cases. Therefore, the incidence of electric wheelchair-related accidents is continuously increasing in the current situation in which the elderly and the disabled people have been continuously increased. However, currently only high and middle-priced products are equipped with basic safety devices in electric wheelchairs, so low-priced products require safety related functions. Therefore, sensing obstacles that the user can not recognize while moving an electric wheelchair and detecting automatically the terrain change to control the motor by developing a smart control platform. This provides an integrated control board that can be applied to various electric wheelchairs for more stable driving.

• PNF and Movement
• /
• v.17 no.3
• /
• pp.379-389
• /
• 2019

Purpose: This study examined the effects of wheelchair handle directions on the trunk muscle activity of adult males when climbing ramps. It also evaluated the wheelchair attendant's physical discomfort during tasks. Methods: Healthy males aged over 20 years were chosen and the direction of wheelchair handle grip was randomly selected. The grips included a general grip with ulnar deviation, a medial grip with wrist pronation, and a neutral grip with a neutral wrist. The trunk muscle activity was measured using surface electromyography. Furthermore, the physical discomfort of wheelchair attendants was subjectively evaluated using the Borg CR-10 Scale, which rates the perceived exertion. In addition, the SPSS 18.0 program was used perform repeated measure ANOVA to compare muscle activity and subjective discomfort during the interventions. The contrast test was also conducted with a significance level (α) of 0.05. Results: There was significant difference between the general grip and the medial grip in the rhomboid major muscle and the lumbar erector spinae muscle (p<0.05). In addition, there was significant difference between the general grip and the neutral grip in the rhomboid major muscle and the lumbar erector spinae muscle (p<0.05). Further, there was significant difference between the general grip and the neutral grip in subjective discomfort (p<0.05). Conclusion: In this study, adult male trunk muscle activity and subjective discomfort were lowest when using the neutral grip while climbing ramps. Accordingly, we suggest that neutral grips will help improve the function of the musculoskeletal system and reduce the subjective discomfort by putting less strain on the trunk muscles and maximizing efficiency with less force.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
• /
• v.26 no.2
• /
• pp.9-13
• /
• 2022

Electric wheelchairs, the output from the motor is mainly applied to a speed reducer using a power transmission device such as a belt or a chain. However, although a speed reducer using a belt or chain is a simple device, it occupies a lot of space and has a space limitation, so it is not suitable for an electric wheelchair driving part. However, since the speed reducer of the planetary gear type is decelerated on the same axis, the volume can be reduced, so the space constraint is less than that of the belt or chain type reducer. Therefore, in this study, a driving part that can obtain great propulsion with a speed reducer using a planetary gear type was developed through a study on the driving part of a wheelchair that can be switched between manual and electric. Accordingly, the tooth shape of the planetary gear applied to the reducer was designed using the Kisssoft program. In addition, the drive part was designed to be applicable to the existing wheelchair wheels, and the mechanism was optimized for the manual/electric switching principle and operation principle of the drive part. Based on the research contents, the final design and manufacture of the wheelchair reducer drive unit in the form of a planetary gear having one sun gear, two planetary gears and one ring gear was carried out.