Manual wheelchair propulsion (MWP) is an inefficient and physically straining process. A reliably fabricated and instrumented wheel can help researchers to accurately calculate the forces and moments exerted by the wheelchair users and propose strategies to improve MWP. In this study, an instrumented wheel is designed, fabricated, and validated by using general uncertainty analysis. A six-component transducer is used to measure three-dimensional forces and moments applied by the wheelchair user on the handrim. The output of the transducer are forces and moments, which are directly transmitted to a PC using a USB port. By developing the transformation equations, the actual forces and moments on the hand of the wheelchair user are calculated. The angular position of the hand on the handrim is calculated from the kinetic data obtained through the instrumented wheel, and the derived equations. The general uncertainty analysis method is used to calculate the uncertainty values for the variables of interest with the Taylor series expansions. An analysis of the results shows that it is possible to obtain reliable information for MWP by using the instrumented wheel. Most of the data have uncertainties under 5% during much of the propulsion phase, and the patterns and overall behavior of the results are comparable to published data.
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e-mail: mallak@mech.ubc.ca
e-mail: sassani@mech.ubc.ca
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June 2007
Research Papers
General Uncertainty Analysis for Manual Wheelchair Propulsion Dynamics and Development of an Instrumented Wheel
M. Mallakzadeh,
M. Mallakzadeh
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
e-mail: mallak@mech.ubc.ca
The University of British Columbia
, Vancouver V6T 1Z4, BC, Canada
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F. Sassani
F. Sassani
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
e-mail: sassani@mech.ubc.ca
The University of British Columbia
, Vancouver V6T 1Z4, BC, Canada
Search for other works by this author on:
M. Mallakzadeh
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
The University of British Columbia
, Vancouver V6T 1Z4, BC, Canadae-mail: mallak@mech.ubc.ca
F. Sassani
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
The University of British Columbia
, Vancouver V6T 1Z4, BC, Canadae-mail: sassani@mech.ubc.ca
J. Med. Devices. Jun 2007, 1(2): 140-150 (11 pages)
Published Online: October 17, 2006
Article history
Received:
October 31, 2005
Revised:
October 17, 2006
Citation
Mallakzadeh, M., and Sassani, F. (October 17, 2006). "General Uncertainty Analysis for Manual Wheelchair Propulsion Dynamics and Development of an Instrumented Wheel." ASME. J. Med. Devices. June 2007; 1(2): 140–150. https://doi.org/10.1115/1.2735970
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