| In this study, an intensive literature review is presented about manual and power stair-climbing wheelchairs highlighting the designs and the climbing processes. This study contributes to the general literature of manual stair-climbing wheelchairs with 1) a new conceptual design of a fully mechanical manual wheelchair with stair-climbing capabilities, 2) a design of a traction system to climb any staircase as specified by the 2000 International Building Code, 3) the design and location of a climbing leg for climbing the first couple of steps of the staircase, 4) the design of a non-Grashof four-bar linkage to change between the wheelchair rolling and climbing positions, 5) the design of an effective drivetrain powered by the user to climb stairs, and 6) a motion analysis of the 3D model conducted in SolidWorks including gravity and friction to confirm the effectiveness of the final design. Finally, future work is discussed, including a detailed design and full size working prototype to conduct physical experiments and confirm the finding of this study. Baltazar Gomez December 2013. |
