Electric Wheelchair Research

[josephhayden]

Hi,

 

I'm new to the forum! My name is Joe and I'm an engineering student at Oxford University. This year I am working with three of my colleagues to design a semi-autonomous electric wheelchair for use by people diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy or Parkinson's disease. In the project we will be taking an existing electric wheelchair and looking to build onto it a system which will aid the user with going about their daily lives. To give you an idea, we are currently looking at how the wheelchair can be controlled during an onset of tremors, or other debilitating symptoms, but the scope for what we can do is quite broad.

 

Although within the group we have experience of working with people with disabilities, none of us have first hand knowledge of the diseases, the symptoms, or the effects they have on people's lives. The reason I have come to this forum is to ask for your help and valuable knowledge to develop our project.

 

We are specifically looking at an age group of between 20 and 50 years of age, and those who use or have used electric wheelchairs. Although we would welcome input from everybody. I ask you to get in touch and tell us about your experiences of using the wheelchairs: positives, negatives, ways you feel they could be improved. We would also like to know about how these diseases affect everyday life, to build a picture of the needs and requirements of the user. Obviously these experiences vary a lot between each person, but having done some research we will look to narrow this down to some key issues and perhaps focus on case studies of a few people.

 

I must stress this is a research project, and there is no commercial aspect to it. For this year the project is purely theoretical, however should we come up with something good we may well continue the development next year as this is a subject we all feel passionate about.

 

Feel free to comment on the forum, or you can contact me via email if you prefer: joseph.hayden@seh.ox.ac.uk

 

Thank you for your help in advance, your time is much appreciated. Joe

[angela]

Hi Joe,

 

I'm 54 have MS and have been using an electric wheelchair 24/7 inside and out for three years, I live alone and value the independance I still have very much so my powerchair and it's comfort is very important to me.

 

Angela

ps. I only live just down the road in Witney.

[Scully]

Hello Joe,

 

I'm over 50......although I dispute this ! I use a manual chair for any distance over about 25yards. And no real experience of power chairs.

 

You said you wanted to understand the condition a little bit.......crumbs how long have you all got? Even we don't understand it at times. However, it may be worth you having a good rummage about in one of our forums headed ' The Survicors guide to MS' here's lots to absorb in there and may give you some idea of rhe day to day problems we have.

 

I also did a blog some time ago, it's on here. But it's called "If my MS could talk " it's been quite useful for the newly diagnosed and are wondering what it's all about and how to cope with it. I've pasted it's link below to save you looking for it. You are welcome to reproduce it, but please drop me a line firstly.

 

http://ms-people.com/forum/blog/10/entry-240-if-my-ms-could-talk/

 

Scully

 

x

Edited 18 Oct 2012, 6:19 pm by Scully

[josephhayden]

Hi Joe,

 

I'm 54 have MS and have been using an electric wheelchair 24/7 inside and out for three years, I live alone and value the independance I still have very much so my powerchair and it's comfort is very important to me.

 

Angela

ps. I only live just down the road in Witney.

 

Hi Angela,

 

Thanks for your response. What sort of chair do you have? We're going to be working with a rear wheel drive outdoor type. The sort of tasks we expect it will be used for is getting to and from work, going shopping or to the park that sort of thing. Are there any problems you experience using your powerchair outside? What sort of support and comfort do you get and how do you feel it could be improved? We'll also be working on the control of the chair, do the joysticks work well? How would you feel about also having voice control, or controlling it by hand gestures, chin movement and that sort of thing?

 

Best regards,

Joe

[josephhayden]

Hello Joe,

 

I'm over 50......although I dispute this ! I use a manual chair for any distance over about 25yards. And no real experience of power chairs.

 

You said you wanted to understand the condition a little bit.......crumbs how long have you all got? Even we don't understand it at times. However, it may be worth you having a good rummage about in one of our forums headed ' The Survicors guide to MS' here's lots to absorb in there and may give you some idea of rhe day to day problems we have.

 

I also did a blog some time ago, it's on here. But it's called "If my MS could talk " it's been quite useful for the newly diagnosed and are wondering what it's all about and how to cope with it. I've pasted it's link below to save you looking for it. You are welcome to reproduce it, but please drop me a line firstly.

 

http://ms-people.com/forum/blog/10/entry-240-if-my-ms-could-talk/

 

Scully

 

x

 

Hi Scully,

 

Thanks for the info, it has been very helpful. I will of course get in touch if I need to use your blog. Thanks again!

 

Best regards,

Joe