• IEMEK Journal of Embedded Systems and Applications
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.209-214
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• 2011

This study suggests a Healthcare System for elderly and disabled who have mobility impairment and use a wheelchair for long time. Seating long time in a wheelchair without reducing pressure causes high risk of developing pressure sores. Pressure sores come with great deal of pain and often lead to develop complication. Not only it takes time and effort to treat pressure sores but also increases medical expenses. Therefore, we will develop a device to help to prevent pressure sores by measuring pressure distribution while seating in a wheelchair and wirelessly send information to user device to check pressure distribution in real time. The equipment to measure body pressure is composed of FSR sitting mat which is a sensor measuring part and an user terminal which is a monitoring part. The designed mat is matrix formed FSR sensor to measure pressure. The sensor send measured data to the controller which is connected to the end of the mat, and then the collected data are sent to an user terminal through a bluetooth. Developing a pressure monitoring system will help to prevent those who have mobility impairment to manage pressure sores and furthermore relieve their burden of medical expenses.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Intelligent Systems
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.80-85
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• 2011

This paper presents the design of the power-assisted controller for the in-wheel type smart wheelchair by using torque estimation that is predicted by relationship between input voltage and output wheel angular velocity. Nowadays, interest of the moving assistant aids is increased according to the increase in population of the elderly and the handicapped person. However some of the moving assistant aids have problems. For example, manual wheelchair has difficulty moving at the slope, because users lack the muscular strength of their arm. In electric wheelchair case, users should be weak by being decreased muscles of upper body. To overcome these problems, power-assisted electric wheelchair are proposed. Most of the power-assisted electric wheelchair have the special rims that can measure the user's power. In here, the rims have to be designed to install the sensors to measure user's power. In this paper, we don't design the rim to measure the man power. To predict the man power, we propose a control algorithm of the in-wheeled electric wheelchair by using torque estimation from the wheel. First, we measure the wheel velocity and voltage at the in-wheel electric wheelchair. And then we extract driving will forces by using proposed mathematical model. Also they are applied at the controller as the control input, we verify to be able to control in-wheel type smart wheelchair by using simulation.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.229-237
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• 2013

In this paper, we report a self-balancing robot wheelchair which has the capability of keeping upright posture regardless of the terrain inclination in terms of the three dimensional balancing motion. It has the mobility of five degrees of freedom, where pitching, yawing, and forward motions are generated by the two-wheeled inverted pendulum mechanism and the rolling and vertical motions are implemented by the movement of the tilting mechanism. Several design considerations are suggested for the sliding type vehicle body, wheel actuator module, tilting actuator module, power and control system, and the riding module.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.15-21
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• 2003

In this study, for a safetv assessment of light weight wheelchair occupant in frontal crash, we tested a dynamic sled impact test. we carried out total 6 times test and impact speed was 20g/48 km/h. By using Hybrid III 50%ile male dummy, head injury criteria(HIC), neck flexion moment, neck axial tension force, neck shear force. chest acceleration, head, wheelchair and knee excursion were measured, we evaluated light weight wheelchair occupant safety by motion criteria(MC) which proposed in SAE J2249 and combined injury criteria(CIC) which is a voluntary standard(GM-IARV) of General Motors Co.. when we assumed that the maximum injury value in frontal crash was 100%, the result of motion criteria(MC) of wheelchair occupant was 52%, occupant upper body injury index(CIC) was 60.1%.

• Journal of rehabilitation welfare engineering & assistive technology
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.109-115
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• 2013

In this paper, we developed pressure mesuring system for powered wheelchair and tried to validate the usefulness of developed system by pressure measuring experiment with 3D motion analysis. This system consist of 64ch seat FSR(Force Sensitive Resistance) sensor unit, 30ch*2 armchair FSR sensor unit, analog and digital hardware board, 2ch rotary encoder unit and realtime signal processing & display S/W. And each data acquired from this system has sampling frequency of 12bit, 10Hz. Pressure measuring experiment for 10 persons who use wheelchair in real life was performed in the 3D vision analysis room. From the experiment, we obtained result that the center line of body inclined to outside direction during powered-wheelchair rotate any direction.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.7-11
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• 2024

The bedsore prevention cushion serves to prevent the skin on the buttocks of a wheelchair user from being damaged through friction with the wheelchair seat. This is because it absorbs some of the weight applied to the wheelchair seat and allows the weight to be applied evenly to the entire contact surface. For the impact test, which is part of the performance testing of bedsore prevention cushions, a hip model that represents the sitting posture of a wheelchair user is required. In this study, a hip model was manufactured for impact testing of bedsore prevention cushions for wheelchairs. Performance tests for pressure bedsore prevention cushions for wheelchairs include KSP 0236, a Korean standard, and KS P ISO 16840-2, an ISO international standard. The hip model proposed in KS P ISO 16840-2 was more suitable for impact testing of bedsore prevention cushions for wheelchairs. However, the guidelines for making hip models proposed by international standards need to be modified to reflect the advancement of model making technology and use easier methods. We propose a new hip model production method that produces a hip model out of plastic all at once and additionally attaches SS-41 steel plates processed into the shape of the hip to make the mass of the model similar to the human body.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.491-496
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• 2015

Electric handbike can be easily detachable to various sizes of manual wheelchair and the elderly and people with disabilities can use them easily. Therefore, connectors used for coupling between the handbike and manual wheelchair must secure structural stability for occupant safety. However, related research is rare. The aim of this study is to find the connector with highly structural stability by comparing static and dynamic mechanical characteristics among three typical connectors(a snatch lock, a slide latch, and a fastener) by computational simulations. To perform static and dynamic simulation, we referred to durability test based on Korean Standards and then calculated mechanical stresses in connectors. The results showed that the snatch lock addressed the lowest von-mises stress under the same mechanical condition. Therefore when using the combination of a handbike and a wheelchair, we concluded that the snatch lock is considered as the structurally stable connector to structural stability and usability.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Technology Engineers
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• v.22 no.3_1spc
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• pp.587-592
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• 2013

Until recently, the primary users of wheelchairs were people with lower body disabilities. However, the number of patients recovering from accidents or surgery, as well as the number of elderly people using wheelchairs, is constantly increasing. This study examined the design and manufacture of standing and gait assist wheelchairs that assist temporary gait disturbed patients to take rehabilitation training and elderly people to engage in walking exercise. A kinematic analysis was used to select a drive motor and design a four-bar linkage mechanism for lifting the backrest vertically. Using a multibody dynamic simulation, detailed design was performed taking into consideration the spatial motion and partial interference, and the necessary push force and stroke of the linear actuator were also calculated. To ensure structural safety, the von-Mises equivalent stresses of the upper and lower brackets of the linear actuator were verified through a finite element analysis. The manufactured wheelchair was shown to operate successfully as intended, using the developed controller for the drive motors and linear actuator.

• Physical Therapy Korea
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.1-8
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• 2017

Background: Individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI) rely on their upper limbs for body-lifting activity (BLA). While studies have examined the electromyography (EMG) and kinematics of the shoulder joints during BLA, no studies have considered foot position during BLA. Objects: This study compared the effects of different foot positions during BLA on the shoulder muscle activities, peak plantar pressure, knee flexion angle, and rating perceived exertion in individuals with SCI. Methods: The study enrolled 13 mens with motor-complete paraplegic SCI, ASIA (American Spinal Injury Association) A or B. All subjects performed BLA with the feet positioned on the wheelchair footrest and on the floor independently. Surface EMG was used to collect data from the latissimus dorsi, pectoralis major, serratus anterior, and triceps brachii. The peak plantar pressure was measured using pedar-X and the knee flexion angle with Image J. Borg's rating perceived exertion scale was used to measure the physical activity intensity level. The paired t-test was used to compare the shoulder muscle activities, peak plantar pressure, knee flexion angle, and rating perceived exertion between the two feet positions during BLA. Results: The activity of the latissimus dorsi, pectoralis major, serratus anterior, and triceps brachii and rating perceived exertion decreased significantly and the peak plantar pressure and knee flexion angle increased significantly when performing BLA with the feet positioned on the wheelchair footrest compared with on the floor (p<.05). Conclusion: These findings suggest that individuals with SCI may perform BLA with the feet positioned on the wheelchair footrest for weight-relief lifting to decrease the shoulder muscle activities and the rating perceived exertion and to increase the peak plantar pressure and the knee flexion angle.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.21 no.11
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• pp.851-860
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• 2020

With an increase in the aging population and a rising social interest in health and welfare, studies to improve healthcare in the elderly are being actively conducted. This study attempted to improve the current design and manufacture of elevating electric wheelchairs to enhance user safety and convenience. Seat design based on the user's body shape, convenience while boarding or alighting, caster turning radius and, safety and stability features that prevent shaking when the user gets up or sits down were improved. A driving experiment was conducted to evaluate the operation of the indoor electric wheelchair designed and manufactured with these additional functionalities. During the test, the performance parameters evaluated were continuous driving time, turning radius, maximum lifting and lowering load, maximum lifting height, noise level, minimum distance sensing by the driving auxiliary sensor, ability to interact with server and app programs, and the duty cycle maximum error rate. The test confirmed that this improved electric wheelchair successfully met target parameters. In a future study, we will evaluate this improved electric wheelchair from a user's perspective for its usability parameters, such as satisfaction, convenience and stability.