Evaluation of operability in driving the electric cart employing the handle without bending movement of wrist
Details
Electric carts should be very useful as the life-supporting machine for elderly or physically handicapped people. Most of electric carts employ an oval steering handle mechanism, therefore a problem sometimes arises with the steering of electric carts. When the operator turns the handle, great flexion of the wrist joint occurs at both grips of the handle, causing distortion of the upper part of the body. To avoid this inconvenience in turning of the handle, the center of gravity of the cart and operator moved in the centrifugal direction. This movement may cause overturning with depending on the road situation and the force of inertia. To resolve this problem, we propose a new type handle, composed of four parallel links. The link-type handle mechanism, which can be operated with a straight-line motion, does not require bending of the wrist joint. This type of handle was quite comfortable for electric carts.
