Abstract
Manual wheelchair users are at a high risk of pain and injuries to the upper extremities due to mechanical inefficiency of wheelchair propulsion motion. The kinetic analysis of the upper extremities during manual wheelchair propulsion in various conditions needed to be investigated. We developed and calibrated a wheelchair dynamometer for measuring kinetic parameters during propulsion. We utilized the dynamometer to investigate and compare the propulsion torque and power values of experienced and novice users under four different conditions. Experienced wheelchair users generated lower torques with more power than novice users and reacted alertly and sensitively to changing conditions. We expect that these basic methods and results may help to quantitatively evaluate the mechanical efficiency of manual wheelchair propulsion.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 540-543 |
| Number of pages | 4 |
| Journal | Journal of the Korean Physical Society |
| Volume | 60 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Feb 2012 |
Funding
This work was supported by the Technology Innovation Program (Industrial Strategic Technology Development Program, 10032055) funded by the Ministry of Knowledge Economy (MKE, Korea) and by the Ministry of Knowledge Economy (MKE) and the Ko- rea Institute for Advancement of Technology (KIAT) through Research and Development for Regional Industry (70011192).
Keywords
- Propulsion power
- Propulsion torque
- Wheelchair
- Wheelchair dynamometer
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Physics and Astronomy