The ergonomics of a manually propelled wheelchair

Includes bibliographical references (pages 98-100)This paper describes the ergonomics of a manually propelled wheelchair with the\ud use of a designed measurement system that can dynamically sense pushrim forces and\ud torques during manual propulsion. A manual wheelchair is equipped with a six-degree-of-\ud freedom force transducer. LabVIEW and Matlab programs are used to cancel outside\ud forces that are produced on the pushrim prior to analysis. The system provides real-time visual feedback of the recorded data via a\ud computer monitor. The applied effort by a wheelchair user during propulsion is recorded\ud to a data file for further analysis. The recorded data is synchronized with the kinematic\ud data of the left upper torso of the wheelchair user; this is obtained through a motion\ud capture system. The motion capture system uses Cortex 5.3 to determine the kinematics\ud of the upper torso. The force/torque data and kinematic data are analyzed together to\ud identify propulsion patterns generated by the wheelchair user. This project involves, force/torque measurement system designed with the use of LabVIEW that is equipped with a Data Translations acquisition board, application of a\ud body motion video capture system with the use of Cortex 5.3, and synchronization\ud strategy between the above two systems