Evaluation of muscle activity on competitive wheelchairs made by 2 types of metallic material for badminton

Abstract

Currently, various types of wheelchairs for badminton are developed for the purpose of weight saving and functional improvement. Furthermore, the materials of the wheelchair frame also diversity. The purpose of this study were to evaluate each performance of the two types of competitive wheelchair for badminton made by the two different metallic materials. In experiment, the electromyograms of subject from six muscles in driving each wheelchair was measured and analyzed. Furthermore, the motion in driving was captured and analyzed using the three-dimensional motion capture system. Subjects were two representatives from Japan. This experiment led to the following result; the driving performance of the wheelchair made by scandium-aluminum composite material was a slightly higher than that by magnesium composite material. This result was thought that the stiffness was more important rather than the lightness in driving badminton wheelchair.