SMART(WHEELS) - DEVELOPMENT AND TESTING OF A SYSTEM FOR MEASURING MANUAL WHEELCHAIR PROPULSION DYNAMICS

The purpose of this project was to develop a system for dynamically se nsing pushrim propulsion forces and torques and to collect kinetic dat a with the device. A system was developed to detect the forces and tor ques applied to the wheelchair pushrim, record, store, and process the measured data, and display the kinetic information for analysis. Ten adults, including four male wheelchair users, three ambulatory men, an d three ambulatory women, pushed a wheelchair with the SMART(Wheel) on a dynamometer while their kinematics were videotaped. The kinetic dat a collected with our wheel were correlated with stick figure represent ations of digitized kinematic data obtained through video analysis. Th e close agreement between the kinetic results and the Kinematic result s provided a temporal validation of the ability of the wheel to detect forces and torques applied to the wheelchair pushrim. The recorded fo rces and torques were in agreement with previously reported magnitudes .