Powered Wheelchair Platform for Assistive Technology Development

Literature shows that numerous wheelchair platforms, of various complexities, have been developed and evaluated for Assistive Technology purposes. However there has been little consideration to providing researchers with an embedded system which is fully compatible, and communicates seamlessly with current manufacturer's wheelchair systems. We present our powered wheelchair platform which allows researchers to mount various inertial and environment sensors, and run guidance and navigation algorithms which can modify the human desired joystick trajectory, so as to assist users with negotiating obstacles, and moving from room to room. We are also able to directly access other currently manufactured human input devices and integrate new and novel input devices into the powered wheelchair platform for clinical and research assessment

Include 2011 : The role of inclusive design in making social innovation happen.

Include is the biennial conference held at the RCA and hosted by the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design. The event is directed by Jo-Anne Bichard and attracts an international delegation

CES-514 Market Evaluation for Colchester Catalyst on the use of Robotic Wheelchairs

1.2 What is a Robotic Wheelchair?........................... 1 1.3 Type of Marketing Research used and sources of data...............

How a Diverse Research Ecosystem Has Generated New Rehabilitation Technologies: Review of NIDILRR’s Rehabilitation Engineering Research Centers

Over 50 million United States citizens (1 in 6 people in the US) have a developmental, acquired, or degenerative disability. The average US citizen can expect to live 20% of his or her life with a disability. Rehabilitation technologies play a major role in improving the quality of life for people with a disability, yet widespread and highly challenging needs remain. Within the US, a major effort aimed at the creation and evaluation of rehabilitation technology has been the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Centers (RERCs) sponsored by the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research. As envisioned at their conception by a panel of the National Academy of Science in 1970, these centers were intended to take a “total approach to rehabilitation”, combining medicine, engineering, and related science, to improve the quality of life of individuals with a disability. Here, we review the scope, achievements, and ongoing projects of an unbiased sample of 19 currently active or recently terminated RERCs. Specifically, for each center, we briefly explain the needs it targets, summarize key historical advances, identify emerging innovations, and consider future directions. Our assessment from this review is that the RERC program indeed involves a multidisciplinary approach, with 36 professional fields involved, although 70% of research and development staff are in engineering fields, 23% in clinical fields, and only 7% in basic science fields; significantly, 11% of the professional staff have a disability related to their research. We observe that the RERC program has substantially diversified the scope of its work since the 1970’s, addressing more types of disabilities using more technologies, and, in particular, often now focusing on information technologies. RERC work also now often views users as integrated into an interdependent society through technologies that both people with and without disabilities co-use (such as the internet, wireless communication, and architecture). In addition, RERC research has evolved to view users as able at improving outcomes through learning, exercise, and plasticity (rather than being static), which can be optimally timed. We provide examples of rehabilitation technology innovation produced by the RERCs that illustrate this increasingly diversifying scope and evolving perspective. We conclude by discussing growth opportunities and possible future directions of the RERC program

A new approach for operating powered wheelchairs by people with severe impairments

This paper discusses the introduction of mechanisms to adapt commercial powered wheelchairs in order to facilitate its driving by people with severe impairments. Several models of operation are proposed and the most promising, at the moment, called legacy adapted mode, is detailed. A part of the formal operation model is presented. The model is then used in the STAGE simulator, not only for its valuation, but also to tune operational parameters that will be specific of each patient and to train the patients without a real wheelchair

Rehabilitation:mobility, exercise & sports; a critical position stand on current and future research perspectives

Background Human movement, rehabilitation, and allied sciences have embraced their ambitions within the cycle of “RehabMove” congresses over the past 30 years. This combination of disciplines and collaborations in the Netherlands has tried to provide answers to questions in the fields of rehabilitation and adapted sports, while simultaneously generating new questions and challenges. These research questions help us to further deepen our understanding of (impaired) human movement and functioning, with and without supportive technologies, and stress the importance of continued multidisciplinary (inter)national collaboration. Methods This position stand provides answers that were conceived by the authors in a creative process underlining the preparation of the 6th RehabMove Congress. Results The take-home message of the RehabMove2018 Congress is a plea for continued multidisciplinary research in the fields of rehabilitation and adapted sports. This should be aimed at more individualized notions of human functioning, practice, and training, but also of performance, improved supportive technology, and appropriate “human and technology asset management” at both individual and organization levels and over the lifespan. Conclusions With this, we anticipate to support the development of rehabilitation sciences and technology and to stimulate the use of rehabilitation notions in general health care. We also hope to help ensure a stronger embodiment of preventive and lifestyle medicine in rehabilitation practice. Indeed, general health care and rehabilitation practice require a healthy and active lifestyle management and research agenda in the context of primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention. IMPLICATIONS FOR REHABILITATION Continued multidisciplinary (international) collaboration will stimulate the development of rehabilitation and human movement sciences. Notions from “human and technology asset management and ergonomics” are fundamental to rehabilitation practice and research. The rehabilitation concept will further merge into general health care and the quality there-off

Support for Technical Phases and Conceptual Model

Worldwide, many wheelchair users find it difficult to use or acquire a wheelchair that is appropriate for them, either because they do not have the necessary financial support or because they do not have access to trained healthcare professionals (HCPs), but they are essential for the correct provision of assistive products and user training. Consequently, although wheelchairs are designed to promote the well-being of many users, in many cases, they end up being abandoned or do not provide any benefit, with the chance of causing harm and potentially putting people in danger. This article proposes the creation and use of a Digital Twin (DT) of a Power Wheelchair (PWC) to promote the health of wheelchair users, by facilitating and improving the delivery of remote services by HCPs, as well as to include monitoring services to support timely maintenance. Specifically, a DT is a virtual counterpart that is seamlessly linked to a physical asset, both relying on data and information exchange for mirroring each other. Currently, DT is emerging and being applied to different areas as a promising approach to gather insightful data, which are shared between the physical and virtual worlds and facilitate the means to design, monitor, analyze, optimize, predict, and control physical entities. This article gives an overview of the Digital Twin concept, namely its definition, types, and properties, and seeks to synthesize the technologies and tools frequently used to enable Digital Twins; we also explain how a DT can be used in the technical phases of the PWC provision process and propose a conceptual model highlighting the use of an MDD approach benefiting from a Petri net formalism, which is presented to systematize the development of a PWC Dpublishersversionpublishe