Measurement of wheelchair turn radius for SCI patient's remodeling house

Abstract

In remodeling the house of an SCI (Spinal Cord injury) patient, it is necessary to accurately determine and carry out changes that are suitable with regard to the patient's ability. In our rehabilitation center, house remodeling is demonstrated for patients and family members through the use of threedimensional computer graphic images before the remodeling occurs. We have proposed an evaluation system that can show whether there is sufficient space in the remodeled house for a wheelchair to be moved or turned using a computer graphic image. The turn space is calculated using only a wheelchair size. Especially, the wheelchair turning radius determined by the physical limitation of each patient is different among SCI patients. In this study, the turning radius is calculated by measuring the moving speed of right and left wheelchair rear wheel using the rotary encoder in order to estimate the actual turn space of wheelchair for SCI patient's remodeling house.

Imaging of the turn space and path of movement of a wheelchair for remodeling houses of individuals with SCI

“…The position and the direction of the wheelchair are estimated using the distance moved by the right rear wheel R d and the left rear wheel L d [5]. The center position of the left rear wheel L n moves to the position L n+1 via the distance moved by the left rear wheel L d and the center position of the right rear wheel R n moves to the position R n+1 as shown in Figure 2.…”

“…Because the turning method differs among individuals with SCI, calculating the turn radius for each individual is important for determining the room size, especially for the toilet room. We can estimate the available turning space in the remodeled house by comparing the individual's remodeled house image and his or her turning area Pt(i,j) as calculated by our method as shown in Figure 5 [5]. Figure 6 shows the speed of the right wheelchair rear wheel R d and the left rear wheel L d when an individual with SCI (Th 4 SCI level, 34 years old, male) turned the wheelchair counter-clockwise freely.…”

“…Moreover, it is necessary to confirm the path through the toilet room for each individual with SCI when the medical staff designs the remodeled house. Previously, we proposed a system that can measure the distance moved by both rear wheels using rotary encoders [5], [6].…”