Hello, hope everyone is well!
I am currently in my final year of my product design degree and have a project brief to redesign a wheelchair. My research focused me to look at problem areas rather than just reimaging an existing wheelchair. For a lot of people suffering severe disabilities, powered wheelchair mobility is very restricted and removes a lot of the individual's independence.
I want to apply the groundbreaking technologies being used in self driving cars to a new powered wheelchair design, that will provide independent mobility for users who struggle to control standard powered wheelchairs. The chair would use sensors to gather loads of information about the surrounding environment every second, allowing it to map its surrounds whilst avoiding both statics and moving obstacles. Using knowledge of the environment and maps, the chair would be able to autonomously navigate to a chose destination with minimal user input.
I have put together a survey to help me identify problems etc that users currently face to help me design a better product. If you a powered wheelchair user, a caregiver who works with powered wheelchair users or know someone who uses a powered wheelchair I would be very grateful if you could fill out the survey, only 10 questions! The university wants 60 responses which I doubtful I will get, so any help would be very beneficial!
https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/2HGQ8NR
Thank you so much hope you all have a great day!