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Title: Effect of a center of gravity of a wheelchair on its performance
Author: Ikuo YONEDA, Tsutomu HASHIZUME, Takuya FUJIKI (Tokyo Metropolitan Technical Aid Center) Yukihiro FUJIOKA, Minoru KAMATA (University of Tokyo) Hideo KAWAI (Tsukuba Technical College)
Proceedings of 12th Japanese Conference of Advancement of Rehabilitation Technology . Vol.12, pp.5-8 (August, 1997)
Keywords:
Author to whom correspondence be addressed:
Ikuo YONEDA
Tokyo Metropolitan Technical Aid Center
TEL: 03-3235-8577

Adstract:
This paper describes a relationship between a center of gravity of hand-propelled wheelchair and its performance. A special wheelchair, which measures driving forces added on the hand rims and revolutions of both driving wheels, was used for this study. The wheelchair was examined on two types of rug, one had long felt, the other had short felt. Positions on the driving wheels were changed as different experimental condition. Subjects added force on the hand rims only once, after that, the wheelchair was running by its inertia until it stopped. The result of the relationship between momentum added on the hand rims and the distance the wheelchair moved showed that the long felt rug needed much more effort and indicated bigger resistance for driving than the short felt rug. On the other hand, the frontal position of the driving wheels indicated lower resistance. It was caused by the difference of the resistance between front castors and rear wheels. The weight balance between them was effective on the total resistance of the wheelchair. These kinds of data are useful for developments of new wheelchairs and adaptation of wheelchairs to users.