Design and Feasibility Test of an Indigenous Motorized Wheel for Manual Wheelchair

Design and Feasibility Test of an Indigenous Motorized Wheel for Manual Wheelchair

Sateesh Reddy Avutu, Sudip Paul, Dinesh Bhatia
Copyright: © 2019 |Pages: 14
DOI: 10.4018/IJMMME.2019070104
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Abstract

The wheelchair is essential for people with either spinal injury, limb injury, or trauma patients. The need at present is to customize the wheelchair based on the requirements of the disabled person. The maintenance and customization of a manual wheelchair is both simple and cost-effective when compared to powered wheelchairs, which are expensive and difficult to maintain in the long run. Accordingly, in this article, an attempt has been made to bring the facilities available in a powered wheelchair into the manual wheelchair, making it affordable to common people. Feasibility of a distinct manual wheelchair rear wheel rim is examined for various hub motor weights. The rear wheel of the manual wheelchair was replaced with an in-wheel direct drive hub-motor system. The proposed wheel model was designed using CATIA – V5 and an analysis was done using ANSYS software. A structural analysis was carried out to check the reliability and durability of the proposed wheel for different materials by changing hub-motor weights at various loading conditions. The nature of vibrations with respect to natural mode frequencies are found through modal analysis. Finally, the dynamic behavior of the proposed motorized wheel was examined using harmonic response analysis. Simulation results show the robustness of the proposed design and viability for real-time implementation.
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2.1. Difference Between Manual and Powered Wheelchair

The wheelchairs available in the Indian market are classified as standard and Ergonomic wheelchairs. These wheelchairs including tricycles must be reliable and durable for long-term usage by the patient. The durability of any wheelchair is dependent upon the material used, type of welding, the size of the wheelchair frame, loads acting on the frame and nature of the place where it can be used. The basic model of the traditionally available manual and powered wheelchair in the Indian market is shown in Figure. 1. The difference between manual and powered wheelchair in design perspective is as shown in Table.1

Table 1.
Difference between manual and powered wheelchair in design perspective
Manual wheelchairPowered wheelchair
The design is simpleThe design is complex
LightweightHeavyweight
Easy maintenance and repaired by a local mechanicMaintenance is costly and professional was needed for any repairs
Run by human powerRun by battery power
The 6061,7000 series aluminum, 4130 series steel material are employedThe 6061,7000 series aluminum, 4130 series steel material are employed
Customization is easyCustomization is difficult
Spare parts availability in the local market is highSpare parts are available with the manufacturing company and its distributors only
The driver wheels are fixed in the rear positionThe position of the drive wheels may change based on the model.

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