Shreshth Mehrotra, Nynke van der Goot, John Mittelstaedt, and Jack Brewer
For our senior design project, our team was tasked with improving the quality of life of a Veteran suffering from Multiple Sclerosis for the past 30 years. The client is quadriplegic due to the severity of his illness, and requires a nurse assisting him always. Currently, our client is unable to shower daily because his bathroom entrance and shower area are slightly elevated, and his shower chair is unable to overcome these. He only showers when the male nurse is scheduled, because the nurse is strong enough to lift and carry our client into the chair already placed in the shower area. Our team’s solution is an attachment to the shower chair that can lift the front end over the bump, slide to the back, and then lift the back end over the bump. For the prototype, we chose to use car jack to elevate the chair. The jack has wheels on the bottom so that once it lifts the chair into the air, the chair can move forward bringing either the front or the back over the obstacle. The jack can slide from the back to the front and is held in place with the use of pins. It is also removable. The significance of the system is that is can apply to all mobility chairs and give them a new range of accessibility. With an improved system, wheelchairs will be able to climb stairs, or larger bumps that currently require a wheelchair accessible ramp.
https://youtu.be/fabe-b9nCv4