Step Climbing Wheelchair

Problem statement:
The people with physical disability not only have less living space, but also the quality of life
is seriously affected and it also brings big burden to their family. Wheelchair as a means of
transport tool plays an important role in the life of those people who are old and disabled. With
the society paying more attention to the benefits of elderly and disabled people, barrier free
facilities as well as the elevator has been widely popularized, common wheelchairs can easily
access many places, but when the user face stairs which often poses as obstacles, people can
only step back, even though with the assistance from others, it is still very difficult to overcome
these obstacles, which is inconvenient for those people who use wheelchairs. So most of the
time these disabled or elderly people can only stay at home, and lack of activities outside may
influence on their physiology and psychology. An optimized economically viable wheelchair
is to be designed to solve this issue.
Note: In this section dont repeat the question, the problem statement should be explained
as above.
Introduction:
Autonomy in the area of mobility has always been highly valued, but is sometimes impaired
by some form ...............................................
of disability. In many cases this results in reliance on some form of external
..............................................
transport mechanism. In this regard traditional wheelchairs and powered wheelchairs continue
.............................................
to play a vital role. However wheelchairs to date provide a high level of mobility only in
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artificial or barrier free environments. There remains a significant gap between the obstacle
...............................................
negotiating ability of a wheelchair and that of the average able bodied person. This aspect is
.............................................
perhaps most apparent when considering stair-climbing. While modern architecture and new
.................................................
continue to make newly built areas as accessible as possible to persons with a wide
policies.....................................................
variety of disabilities steps will always be a reality in the real world.
Objectives of design:
1. Impart step climbing functionality to wheelchairs
2. Simplify the design of step climbing wheelchair and make it more economical
3. The wheelchair should be comfortable for people through ergonomic design
4. High human risk factor should be considered to reduce accidents
5. Seat belt should be provided
6. Back-lock mechanism should be included to avoid sudden step downing of wheelchair
7. An extra pocket should be provided for carrying personal stuffs
8. It should be modular design to increase transportability of the wheelchair
9. Electric motor should be provided to mechanise the system with hand controls
Note: Drawing an objective tree will be more attractive
Constrains of design:
1. It should be economical since poor people cant afford high cost
2. Weight of the wheelchair should be limited within human comfort level
3. Size of the wheel chair should be within the limitation of modern building door size
4. Material should withstand loading with a factor of safety 3

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 5. Design that cause any human safety risk should be eliminated
Sketch:

DIMENSIONS OF THE CHAIR

Frame dimensions at base = 38 x 38 cm
Frame dimensions at back = 38 x 38 cm
Length of the handle for moving the wheelchair = 15 cm
Length of hand rest = 23 cm
Total height of the wheelchair = 77 cm
Width of the wheelchair = 61 cm
Height of the legs = 46 cm
Radius of the spokes = 31 cm
Diameter of the wheels = 9.5 cm
Average height of the steps = 13 cm
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Note: Simple diagram can be constructed for any complicated designs, but the
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components...............................................
should be labelled properly and if you give details about dimensions it will
be appreciated (it may not be exact, you can formulate dimensions with common sense)
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Explanation for the solution:
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The commercially available wheelchair for amputees doesnt have the functionality for
climbing staircases. In our project we have designed a manually operated wheel chair that can
travel in both plane terrains and also in the staircases. Instead of using normal wheels, in our
project we have used penta wheel. The steel rod is penta shaped and each rod is equally inclined
of 72 from each other. At the time of climbing, one wheel that is the idle wheel will be in
contact with the ground and another wheel will be in contact with the stair. The process
continues and the motion takes place only when we pull the wheel chair backwards towards
the staircase. This design can be folded by means of lather materials used for seating
arrangements.
Advantages of Design:
1. Above design is optimized with minimum number of components and hence it is highly
economical when comparing with other designs available in market
2. This wheelchair is fully mechanised so it will reduce the human effort and support
people with disabilities
3. The penta wheel chair system has self-locking ability so it will avoid the sudden return
of wheel chair
4. This ergonomically designed wheelchair can be operated by differently abled people
without any bystanders

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 5. This design is portable by means of modular design, hence it can be transported easily
Limitations of Design:
1. People with high body weight may not be good with this wheelchair
2. Stairs with high inclinations and curvy turns will make issues for this design
3. Continuous operation may leads to failure of wheelchair, since this design is not highly
reliable

Remember:
End semester exam open book exam 50 marks (2 hours duration)
Question paper consisting of
6 question with 5 mark weightage (6x5=30 Marks)
2 question with 10 mark weightage (2x10=20 Marks) {Options may be provided}
*The above example is for 10 mark question

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Naseel Ibnu Azeez.M.P
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Asst. Professor,
.............................................
Dept. of Mechanical Engineering,
.................................................
MEA-Engineering College,
.....................................................
Perinthalmanna.
Email: naseel@live.com

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