Biomechanical Measurement System for Application to Wheelchair Seating Systems
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Date
2016-05
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Publisher
The Ohio State University
Abstract
People who have physical or cognitive disabilities often require wheelchairs for increased mobility. Sitting in a wheelchair for an extended time can result in pressure ulcers, spinal degeneration, and other biomechanical health issues that may impact the user’s health. In order to prevent these secondary health issues, the user needs to be properly fitted in their wheelchair in order to distribute the forces acting on the person in such a manner as to minimize injury risk. However, current wheelchair fitting practices are a very manual and qualitative process. Clinicians currently make educated guesses by the patient’s comfort and their general dimensions, but there is no quantitative way to validate their decisions. The purpose of this research was to create a system that can experimentally calculate the center of mass for a wheelchair user. This project was also part of a larger initiative to develop a user-friendly tool for clinicians that will facilitate and improve the wheelchair fitting process. The developed measurement device utilizes force sensing resistors on specific wheelchair locations, which includes the wheelchair seat, back, and headrest. The sensors record data that is used to calculate the center of mass of the patient in respect to the wheelchair. By knowing the center of mass of the patient, clinicians will have more data for the fitting process and can be used to assess the biomechanical effectiveness of current fitting methods. By providing quantitative feedback to the clinician the efficacy of the wheelchair fitting process can be improved and the procedure streamlined. This should result in an increased quality of life for wheelchair users and provide novel data that can be utilized to better understand the biomechanical interaction of humans and wheelchair systems.
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Keywords
Center of Mass, Wheelchair Seating System, Biomechanical Measurement System, Experimentally measuring center of mass