This project was inspired by Randall, a student from Toledo University. He used wheelchair to travel to different countries. He wanted to be independent. When he got through a narrow corridor, it's cumbersome for him to carry around his favorite backpack. Therefore, we designed and made a linkage mechanism prototype to assist him and many people in similar situation to automatically move the backpack from the back of the wheelchair to the side of the wheelchair.
This is the original chair with adapter for the linkage system. The design was initially given to our team for the system design packaging consideration.
We used ADAMS to calculate the force acting on each joint of the linkage system. This is to both making sure that the motor power is efficiently delivered to moving the backpack and that the joints were able to hold the extra friction due to the linkage deflection.
To minimize the friction on each joint, different types of bushing and bearings were used as shown above.
The linkage system in retracted position compactly places the backpack behind the wheelchair. This allows the wheelchair user to go through a narrow corridor.
The linkage system in opened position provides access to the backpack form the side of the wheelchair.
An exploded view of the whole system shows the mountings, bearings, and power transmission parts.
An overall summary of the project can be found in this pdf file.
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Mobile Backpack Carrier
This is my undergraduate junior design project. The In this project, I worked together with my teammates, Steve Hwang, Melvyn Pard, and Nan Zhong. We found a solution to the disable student on reaching the backpack on the wheel chair. We designed manufactured a prototype, and tested a backpack moving system to automatically move the backpack from the back to the side of the wheel chair. A laser sensor safety features were also installed.
A final report for the detailed analysis and design approach is attached.
