Stair Climb Wheelchair Prototype

[mgwmgw]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVdQaJ4S4oY&feature=g-all-lgv

[Burgerman]

If he set off from my house in that, with me in my own chair, to go to my nearest pub for a pint, I would have downed the first two before he arrived.

Whats more, those silly little wheels wouldnt cope with the real outside world of crumbling concrete, muddy paths (its winter). And when (if?) he arrived he wouldnt get that thing turned or wiggled through the busy resturant, and in a position to do the daft ramp. And turning on the spot, essential for any chair in confined spaces - makes it about 2 meters long!

As I said in another thread. Every year some students design a "better" wheelchair, by solving the curb problem. But at the expense of all else. Like for instance battery power since I see no place for a big enough battery. And speed, comfort, indoor manoeverability, cost, complication etc.

And then theres the fact that most chairs ALREADY climb small curbs, and realistically thats all thats needed in most cases. There is no single place that I have ever wanted to get to that didnt have an alternate route or slope or something. I dont live in a place where this matters. But maybe some do.

[mgwmgw]

Ex-Gooserider and I live in a house where it would be very useful for him to be able to climb up and down stairs, but I agree about the other problems with this design. We can learn from negative examples too.

Mary-Anne

[ex-Gooserider]

Actually BM, as I recall some of your descriptions of your house, as well as the photos from your quadcopter demos, don't you have a second floor that you can't personally use?

Our house certainly fits that description - we have to sleep in a very cramped kid-sized bedroom, because I can't get to the MUCH larger upstairs master bedroom... I also can't get to the stuff in the basement, including a lot of my electronics gear, the home node for the house network, and so on...

Fewer steps, but I can't get into the laundry room either so Mary-Anne has to do my laundry for me (could be worse, but I don't like sticking her with the job) Even getting into the garage is a minor issue - we have steps that give direct access (via the laundry room) but for me, to get there I have to go around outside on the ramp to the driveway...

If I ever figured out how to rig up the snowblower to drive it from the chair (or some other adaptation, like the lawn tractor) it would still be a problem as I'd need to get down the ramp to get into the garage in order to get the blower out... If I could directly go to the garage, it would be much easier...

This doesn't even mention the many social events that we'd like to go to at friend's homes, where access is only by stairs - we either can't go, or need to drag along my manual and have other guests carry / drag me up the stairs....

I agree with the logic that says stairclimbing in current designs doesn't work, but that doesn't mean that we couldn't use it if there was a way to do it without killing the performance in other respects....

ex-Gooserider

[Burgerman]

But that chair wont do stairs either. I played with the pre production Ibot 3000 too. Stair climbing was such a pain, slow, and ate so much limited battery power that even though it "could" it wasnt worth the bother.

There comes a point where making something do tricks that are just not natural, as in the case of making powerchairs do stairs, just becomes self defeating.

Because whilst this IS possible (there have been many such "solutions") non are real world practical.

What annoys is the fact that every year there is yet another group of students / graduates, that decide that this is our biggest problem - without asking us - and set about solving it. Again. Then expect us all to be amazed.

For 15 years I have seen countless impractical ungainly devices that are basically an engineering nightmare that looks like a cross between a DIY store and a wheelbarrow, that ignores our REAL needs and makes for another impractical unusable and dismal powerchair. As long as it fixes the huge curb problem. That I never realised i had.

I know I am old and bitter and twisted! But next year will be another rash of stair climbing wheelchairs. Non of these designers will ever ask where the real problems lie, and what affect having 5Ah batteries or 4 inch wheels will have in the real world... So long as it fixes "the problem"...

[mgwmgw]

Just in case anyone is curious about the Japanese commentary, here is, I think, the same video with English subtitles.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2SHKyq5yCU&feature=context-gfa