Efficient Body-Transfer Wheelchair for Assisting Functionally Impaired People

Functionally impaired people always have difficulty accomplishing activities of daily living. In this regard, tasks including toileting and bathing have a higher prevalence rate of injuries and greater risk of falling. In this study, a body-transfer wheelchair was developed to assist people in transferring from bed to wheelchair for bathing, and toileting. The body-transfer wheelchair is a semi-automatic wheelchair that has features such as a controlled leg and backrest, linkage commode slot, and height adjustment. The wheelchair consists of a seat and a main frame that can be detached to enable bathtub transfer. This mechanism lets the user stay on the seat while being transferred into the bathtub without any risk of falling. A linkage mechanism was developed as a part of the seat for ease of toileting. Kinematic and force analysis was conducted to calculate the force required for each actuator. It has been proved by the experimental results that the wheelchair can securely and comfortably transfer a patient from the bed to the toilet or bathtub. A survey has been conducted to evaluate the wheelchair prototype design idea. Two focus groups were chosen: one comprised of functionally impaired people, and the other comprised of caregivers. The results of the survey show that 60% of both functionally impaired people and caregivers would like to use the body-transfer wheelchair for toileting and bathing purpose. Additionally, on average 65% of both focus groups find it convenient to operate the body-transfer wheelchair independently.