This project has been developed as part of the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering course ENGR 1716: The Art of Making: An Introduction to Hands-on System Design and Engineering. Meet the team here
Embedded Files
What is Slide Guide?
What is Slide Guide?
Video Disclaimer: This video is for demonstration purposes only. None of the people shown have a disability.
Our Motivation
Our Motivation
Transfers from wheelchair seats are not easy.
IMG_1467.MOVTransfer to toilet
IMG_1469.MOVTransfer to bed
IMG_1474.MOVTransfer to car
65 million people worldwide have had their lives impacted by being confined to a manual wheelchair. Talking to some of these people as well as experts in the field of manual wheelchairs, we found that many individuals often suffered from shoulder and neck pain due to frequent transfers from their wheelchair to common surfaces such as toilets, car seats, and beds.
Problem Statement
Problem Statement
Wheelchair transfers are difficult and strenuous maneuvers that are inevitable and occur frequently throughout the dar for a person in a wheelchair. This inspires us to ask ourselves how might we improve the transfer process for manual wheelchair users?
Human-Centered Design Methods
Human-Centered Design Methods
Our users include individuals who use manual wheelchairs and have upper body mobility to transfer between seats. Our stakeholders include family members, caretakers, wheel chair suppliers, physical therapists, and physicians.
There are two primary maneuvers involved in seat transfer.
Upward and downward motion to reach the level of the intended surface
Forward and backward adjustment to align with the intended surface
After discussions with with users and stakeholders, we decided to focus on a wheelchair seat with horizontal mobility.
Upward/Downward
Upward/Downward
Scissor jack lift
Forward/Backward
Forward/Backward
Sliding cabinet drawer tracks
Use Case
Use Case
IMG_1418.MOVAn individual in a manual wheelchair might move into and out of bed, into and out of a car, and onto and off of a toilet numerous times in a given day - Slide Guide can help that individual to more easily complete those tasks.
A use case can include an individual using a public restroom. Slide Guide can make their experience much easier as shown on the left.
Design Goals / Objectives
Design Goals / Objectives
Facilitate Wheelchair Transfers: The most important objective for the design was that it made transferring to and from a wheelchair a easier, quicker, and more empowering process.
Lightweight: It was important that our design was lightweight as additional weight added to a wheelchair can lead to strain and injury to a person who has to propel themselves in the chair.
Affordable: We wanted to reduce cost as much as possible so that our attachment could be as accessible to individuals as possible
Easily attachable and secure: In order to promote ease of use and safety of the device, the Slide Guide needed to be quickly and reliably secured to a wheelchair.
System Diagrams
System Diagrams
Materials
Materials
Plywood seat
Two extending tracks (up to 14 inches)
Four screw on conduit clamps
Two folding shelf brackets
Two workbench casters attached to the support legs
Results
Results
Throughout this 6 week process, we have developed a device that is to be used on a wheelchair that makes it easier for transfers on wheelchairs to occur. At this time testing with actual wheelchair users has not occured and is the first step our team must take in moving forward.
To facilitate wheelchair transfers. While we believe the Slide Guide puts less strain on the user and can reduce the time spent completing the transfer, more user testing must take place before we can make this claim.
Our total attachment to weigh under 20 pounds. While we did achieve this goal, we hope to make the attachment more lightweight in future iterations.
The attachment to be affordable, making it more accessible to all people. The total cost of our attachment was $120, but future iterations along with production scaling can significantly alter this price.
Have a secure and easily attachable device. We did achieve this goal by using four bolted in hinges that takes about 2 minutes to install. In future iterations however, we are considering the use of clips to make attaching our device even easier.
Next Steps
Next Steps
Looking into the future, our first step would be to make a locking mechanism on our attachment so that the seat only slides out when needed.
We will also look at possible options to make our device collapsible with the wheelchair itself for easy transportation.
Another future iteration we want to think about is having a backing support in place when the chair slides out.
We also plan to put more consideration into the types of materials used in our device to allow the Slide Guide to be both lightweight and weight bearing.
Acknowledgements & References
Acknowledgements & References
Dr. Tony Kerzmann (Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science, University of Pittsburgh)
Dr. Anne Robertson (Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science, University of Pittsburgh)
Dr. John Whitefoot (Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science, University of Pittsburgh)
Dr. Alicia Koontz (Human Engineering Research Laboratories)
https://mstrust.org.uk/news/views-and-comments/life-a-wheelchair-–-elaines-story
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