Off-Road-Wheelchair - a friendly competition
Hello friends,
I personally don't have to use a wheelchair,
but we have an acquaintance, who is - after a diving accident -
bound to a wheelchair.
He raises up the question, about being able to be "offroad" in the woods or mountains by himself, would be a great deal for him.
Therefore the thinking of an "offroad-Wheelchair" entered our mind.
My brother, who is a teacher in a technical college or school in germany, started some projects, where the students also tried to find good and easy solutions for this task.
But it is not easy.
Finding this website and finding so many solutions of so many difficult problems of life, I rememberd this task,
and think, that this gathering of "brainpower", ideas and idealism,
could be a perfect place, to start a project like this.
Maybe there are already good solutions among the friends here in this forum of instructables,
maybe this could be also a start for good, new ideas,
I am interested about the reactions and answers to this topic.
What do you think about this idea?
What is the best way to go?
Let me know!
Greetings to all!
Steve
PS: I think "communities" like this, in sharing ideas for good,
with other people, is one of the top-best ascpects of the internet!
PPS: HELP - I tried to put this into the section of Assistive Technology, but I dont know how - Is there anybody out there, to replace it there...
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Aug 23, 2011. 3:26 PMChocolateHateKake
says:
I make wheels for a company called Magic Wheels. We make wheelchair wheels with a gearing system for off-road and inclines. www.magicwheels.com. We make adapters to fit the vast majority of wheelchair brands, and we have offroad tires too.
I've ridden one of these briefly and it might inspire someone with the skills to build it. Depending on where you live there may be non-profits that are dedicated to providing this service. I worked for one in Logan, Utah and know of one in Anchorage, Alaska. I'm sure most major cities would have a similar organization that keeps an inventory of adapted equipment, provides transportation and the opportunity to meet other people that have the same passions and limitations.
That's pretty cool, but he does seem to spend a lot of time looking at gravel.
This article is now in the AT Group forum. I did a quick Google search for "off-road wheelchair" and got some very interesting results.
There's a commercially available chair that lists for US$4,000. The design might show how a standard high-quality chair could be "modified" by replacing the tires.
The Extreme Wheelchair Sports has both interesting chair mods, as well as what people with an attitude can do with their chairs.
How about a powered, four-wheel mountain bike?
I'll leave looking through the rest of the Google results to you.
There's a commercially available chair that lists for US$4,000. The design might show how a standard high-quality chair could be "modified" by replacing the tires.
The Extreme Wheelchair Sports has both interesting chair mods, as well as what people with an attitude can do with their chairs.
How about a powered, four-wheel mountain bike?
I'll leave looking through the rest of the Google results to you.
Dec 19, 2008. 1:19 PMSteveMcCraft (author)
says:
Hey Michael, thanks a lot for your help. Those solution in google are interesting. But they do look also expensive. Maybe a cheap way could also be, to adapt a commercial ATV. But maybe also people here have good ideas. The topic problem was maybe solved by hand, from the staff or just has need a longer processing time, than I did expect. Greetings from germany Steve
I'd love to see an ATV adapted for the dis-abled. I have a family member completely disabled with Rheumatoid Arthritis, and he's asked me about that before. I just can't quite figure out how to do it. THere's also a little girl from our church with Spina Bifida. She loves the outdoors, and has a pretty rugged wheelchair. But she'd love to ride an ATV like her brother and cousins.
There's a project on the site that could be used as a prototype for an off-road wheelchair.
Hexapod robot
With a higher stride, wider footprint and broader feet, it could become an off-road walking wheelchair. A variation on the Theo Jansen Strandbeest style mechanism could provide a higher step to climb over obstacles.
Hexapod robot
With a higher stride, wider footprint and broader feet, it could become an off-road walking wheelchair. A variation on the Theo Jansen Strandbeest style mechanism could provide a higher step to climb over obstacles.
Dec 19, 2008. 2:37 PMSteveMcCraft (author)
says:
My dear new friend kiteman, thank you very much for your reply and especially for the link to the artist. Oh, I do appreciate this kind of art very much, and this one was new to me. BUT: I am in a discussion with my brother, since in my opinion, those "foot-walking-simulating" machines are NOT better in OFF-Road. This is just an false impression, since they remind us to the "off-road-oportunities" of legged animals and man. But if you think, those "legs" of those "wheels legs" are very much fixed to there movement and do NOT have the "grades of freedom and variation" that "real legs" do have. Even worse, I do think, that normal, big Wheels are better "offroad" than those "simulated wheel-legs". This is just my opinion, and I am interested in opinions of you and other people here. But you are right, that I do hope and think, that a "REAL-leg-simulation" could give the "offroad-LEG-Chair" a new dimension of freedom, and maybe here - in inst... - are some genius, who have built or like to think about "real-legged-transporters" as a DIY-project. I think, they had to use pnematic or hydraulic and ankels and a kind of "very smart" control system, simulating the muscles. A kind of dream is, that the movement of the "legs" could be measured from a "controlling" movement of the fingers of the hand of the "driver". That you use one hand, while sitting on the "leg-chair" and simulate the walking with your own fingers, - using an "smart glove with electronic sensors in it." - the movement of the fingers is controling the movement of the legs. I do think, that could be possible, but not easy. Maybe I am also totally wrong. Greetings to You Steve
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