Design and experimental evaluation of yoked hand-clutching for a lever drive chair.
Lever-drive wheelchairs lower physical strain but are less maneuverable than push-rim wheelchairs. Here, we study a possible solution in which the user simultaneously actuates clutches mounted between the levers and wheels each stroke via a clutch handle attached to one lever; this solution is of pa...
| Published in: | Assistive Technology Vol. 30; no. 5; pp. 281 - 289 |
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| Main Authors: | , , |
| Format: | equations & formulas pictorial research tables/charts Journal Article |
| Published: |
Taylor & Francis Ltd
2018
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| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=132729398&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ccm uiTerm: 132729398 longDbName: CINAHL Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: dissinfo: jinfo: jid: 10400435 YVP jtl: Assistive Technology issn: 10400435 maglogo: Y pubinfo: dt: 2018 vid: 30 iid: 5 pid: 377 pub: Taylor & Francis Ltd place: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania artinfo: ui: 132729398 132729398 132729398 10.1080/10400435.2017.1326413 132729398 ppf: 281 ppct: 8 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P tig: atl: Design and experimental evaluation of yoked hand-clutching for a lever drive chair. aug: au: Sarigul-Klijn, Yasemin Smith, Brendan W. Reinkensmeyer, David J. affil: Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of California, Irvine, California, USA sug: subj: Persons with Disabilities Physical Mobility Wheelchairs Utilization Equipment Design Task Performance and Analysis Product Development Human Adult Male Assistive Technology Equipment and Supplies Prospective Studies Data Analysis Heart Rate Multimethod Studies Analysis of Variance T-Tests Post Hoc Analysis Descriptive Statistics Outcome Assessment Adult: 19-44 years Male ab: Lever-drive wheelchairs lower physical strain but are less maneuverable than push-rim wheelchairs. Here, we study a possible solution in which the user simultaneously actuates clutches mounted between the levers and wheels each stroke via a clutch handle attached to one lever; this solution is of particular interest for user groups with only one functional hand. First, to demonstrate maneuverability, we show how this “yoked clutch” allows an experienced user to maneuver a constrained space. Then, we compared the difficulty of learning a yoked clutch chair to a conventional lever-drive transmission (i.e. a one-way bearing). Twenty-two unimpaired novice adults navigated a figure-eight track during six training sessions over two weeks. Participant mean speed improved roughly 60% for both chairs, with similar exponential improvement time constants (3 days) and final speeds. However, speed improvement mostly took place overnight rather than within the session for hand-clutching, and the physiological cost index was also about 40% higher. These results indicate that while hand-clutching is no more difficult to learn than a lever-drive, it is reliant on overnight improvement. Also, its increased maneuverability comes with decreased efficiency. We discuss how the yoked clutch may be particularly well suited for individuals with stroke during inpatient rehabilitation. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: equations & formulas pictorial research tables/charts Journal Article ougenre: Article language: English refInfo: holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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