The Design of a Compact and Lightweight Wheelchair for Disabled Children

Abstract

This paper describes the process of designing a wheelchair with the main aim of making it compact and lightweight. A wheelchair is a common device used to assist in terms of mobility for those with difficulty to walk. Most conventional manual wheelchairs are heavy and bulky, even after they are folded. The designed wheelchair in this research is able to reduce the weight approximately by 30%. The wheelchair volume after folding is also reduced significantly. Besides, the designed wheelchair was evaluated by using 3D CAD software to analyse the strength and possible material failure. Moreover, a virtual mannequin was used to evaluate the geometry and the comfort of the design. On top of that, a scale down prototype was produced by using a 3D printer to evaluate the fold-ability function of the wheelchair.