高勾配のスロープ上をアシスト可能な検診車用電動車いすの開発

抄録

In mountainous region, medical examination bus is often used for medical examinations of the elderly, especially for the ultra-elderly who are usually the users of wheelchair. A slop between the floor and the bus entrance is necessary to let the users of the wheelchairs enter into the bus, in which, the gradient of the slop is as high as 15 degree in some cases. To make the wheelchair run into the bus, the caregivers or the examination staffs have to exert all of their forces to push and/or pull the wheelchair. In order to alleviate the burden of the caregivers or the staffs, in this research we are developing an electric powered assistive wheelchair for examination bus. We designed the wheelchair chassis, developed its control system and HMI (human-machine interface), and conducted the experiments. The experimental results show that the caregiver’s power is reduced by 72% on a 15 degree slope.