Abstract:
Independent life is one of the most significant concerns for a disabled person specially
when considering their mobility requirements. Due to the availability of facilities, both
indoor and outdoor, wheelchair users face many difficulties when entering a building via
staircases. Particularly, in the developing world, the concern about difficulties faced by
the disabled and elderly community in accessing buildings is inadequate. As a result,
most of the wheelchair users are forced to stay home and it makes their lives dependent.
Since many years, scientists and researchers have been working for providing effective
solutions for the mobility issues of disabled community. Stair-climbing wheelchair is
one of the most powerful and popular solutions which is currently in use for mobility
requirements of the disabled community. But most of the existing stair-climbing
wheelchair designs have a drawback of the lack of adaptability especially at the top and
the bottom of the staircase
As a solution, a novel stair-climbing mobile platform with improved stability and
safety is presented in this thesis. In this research, the novel mobility platform has been
designed referring to the standards of staircases which have been accepted worldwide.
Based on those stipulated parameters, the maximum operating angle of this design is
selected as forty degrees, which is the highest angle as per the standards. Based on
the literature review, track based arrangement is used as the basic mechanism for the
mobile platform design because of speed, grip and user comfort. By considering the
main problem of the track mechanism, variable configuration of track mechanism is
used for the design in order to achieve adaptable arrangement to the staircase. Also
detail analysis of design safety based on different postures on staircases are discussed and
basic conditions for stair-climbing operation are derived. By considering the prototype
construction, a detailed description of development stages of prototype is explained
based on practical approaches in order to minimize the defects in the final product.
In order to validate the stable and safe operation, simulation and experimental studies
have been carried out. According to proposed novel motion plans for stair-climbing
operation, the simulation study illustrates that there does not exist any sudden disturbances
on the user’s operating path over staircase. By following the same procedure as
used in simulation study, experimental studies have been carried out by implementing
motion plans for each stage of operation. Based on the results, it confirms that the
operating path of the design follows a similar behaviour as discussed in the simulation
study. For further justification of the safety of the design, the actual operating path is
well observed by using a video tracker software. Based on the actual operating path of
the design, it confirms that throughout the staircase, the design maintains a stable operating
path without creating any sudden disturbances on the mobile platform. Thus,
it confirms that this design can provide a comfortable operation for the user whilst
maintaining stable and safe posture throughout the operation.
Citation:
Thamel, W.S.R. (2022). A Novel stair-climbing mobile platform and its motion control system [Master's theses, University of Moratuwa]. Institutional Repository University of Moratuwa. http://dl.lib.uom.lk/handle/123/21401