(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2022-07)
Deshpande, Yogesh; Sprigle, Stephen
The evaluation of wheelchair cushion performance is of interest to a variety of stakeholders. Over the years, several buttocks models have been used to evaluate wheelchair cushion performance. These vary in design and purpose, and can be generally classified as either rigid or compliant.
To date, published studies using buttock models have been limited to using a single size model. Thus, they were designed to evaluate one size of cushions. A need exists to define a series of models that can be used to evaluate cushions of varying sizes. The objective of this project was to develop a family of compliant buttock models that are based upon the anatomical parameters of persons with varying body sizes. This paper will detail the designs, describe the anatomical basis for the design and provide the rationale for the design decisions. Supplemental material includes greater detail; the full CAD files and model fabrication instructions are available in an open access repository for persons who wish to fabricate the models.
(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2020-10-12)
Misch, Jacob P.; Sprigle, Stephen
This repository contains videos of the Anatomical Model Propulsion System (AMPS) performing straight and curvilinear maneuvers to characterize the performance of various manual wheelchair configurations. The AMPS was configured with a torque-based motor controller. Different trajectories were deployed for different chairs. The straight maneuver features three 'acceleration phase' pushes followed by four 'steady-state phase' pushes, then the system is allowed to gradually coast to a rest. The slalom maneuver starts with one bilateral push to align the casters straight forward, followed by four alternating unilateral pushes to generate the serpentine-like turning motion. K0004 (high-strength lightweight) chairs were tested over tile and carpet, and were given higher torques than the K0005 (ultra-lightweight) chairs to achieve similar motion. Plots of each of the torque profiles are attached in .png format.