Electric Wheelchair Future Technology

Honda announced the personal mobility device, the U3-X. Device looks like robotic unicycle, and is designed to help people with disabilities to move around. Honda will showcase U3-X personal mobility device at Tokyo Motor show later in October.

U3-X is based on technology developed in Honda’s humanoid robot Asimo. Honda is well known for its R&D in robotics and assistive technology, and although its announcements are many (see the one about artificial robotic leg) most of this is still years away from production and sale. Looks like Honda is competing heavily against local rival Toyota, which is also aggressive on robotics and research – and both move in similar direction (toyota shows segway personal transporter with seat, toyota and mind controlled wheelchair, toyota i-swing personal mobility device)…

Anyhow, U3-X is on contrary with Toyota’s i-Swing a small device, which is also very portable. It can be carried around and put in trunk with ease. U3-X has a seat height a bit higher than an average person’s waist line, so passenger must “jump” on it to commence the ride. Passenger then puts his his feet to the foot rests (similar as found on motor bikes). The rest is already known from segway – passenger leans in the direction he wants to go, and U3-X personal mobility device moves. It can drive in 8 directions (cross and diagonally as well) and reaches a top speed of 3,7 MHP (5,5 km/h) – meaning that it moves at pace of average persons walk.

Honda’s chairman Takanobu Ito commented that “And if my legs get a little weak, I would like to have one of these around the house. It makes it easy to move about.”. We guess he has a big house… Honda did not want to comment on price and availability of the U3-X nor any plans to produce similar versions of power wheel chair or electric wheel chair devices like toyota i-swing where user sits and leans back on it…

See link to video on the next page.

Read more >>>

The shape of the Toyota i-swing looks like it is something that we wear and does not give the feeling of something that we drive. This model was first came into prominence in the Auto Show at Tokyo in 2005, and was showed again in perfected form in late 2008. The straight two wheeler model occupies very less space on the crowd filled places like sidewalk, etc. It helps you in gliding at a decent pace and on an even pace to that the partner you are having a conversation with. If you want to increase the speed, you can convert into three wheeled model and can be driven easily on the road. It has an inbuilt AI which helps in learning the habit of ours and the personal preferences making it just as an extension of your own self.

This model of Toyota i-swing will help us never having to walk anywhere else with its multi mode conversion options. Thus with its two-wheeled mode you can use it when you are walking and if you want move faster or drive at the regular speed. It actually gives us a wearable sort of feeling when using it. This would surely become an alternative to car in the very distant future.

The long term work of Toyota on single person travel vehicle has got its shape in the form of Toyota i-swing. This is also the result of their long drawn research that they put in on personal mobility vehicles.

The control of this i-swing is in the form of joysticks, actually with two of them. They maximum speed that this i-swing can achieve is 36 mph. It is tentatively priced at between $7000 to $8000. But what makes this really unsafe is the fact that driving at 36 mph without any protection or airbags. Thus Toyota has to work on this fact before they actually bring this into market.

More info at Toyota.

Image via WikipediaTankchair LLC recently announced their 2008 model/remake of the original TankChair (from 2006)… The new and improved model, named Mk2 is electric wheelchair that was developed with mud, snow, streams, sand/gravel and other outdoor terrain in mind, allowing the user to get back to nature, or conquer home environment – including climbing up and down the stairs…

Similar than all-terrain electric wheelchair we previously wrote about 2008 model has lower center of gravity, more torque, stronger chassis, and improved incline and decline approach angles. It has rubberized tracks instead of standard wheels and looks more like a miniature tank than any of electric wheelchair cousins. It also has a full-height chair with abundant cushioning for added comfort to smoothen a bumpy ride. Electric wheelchair is using rubber tracks and high torque electric motors, and manufacturer guarantees that it will take you just about anywhere. Even the urban street and stairs, with a incline accent of up to 45-degrees!!

Read more >>>

Each day future of mobility looks less and less like the automobile – old concept of moving a few tons of steel to carry one or two people is far from optimal, and in the age of global warming, eco-friendly transportation is becoming hot topic. Analytics already voiced expectations that market for short-distance, one and two person transport vehicles will emerge very soon (by 2009), and we speculate that first design units to accommodate this new market, are being developed today under electric wheelchair tag…

Recently we saw plethora of electric wheelchairs with a fuel cell unit, and here we are reviewing five of them… The most coverage definitely got Suzuki's MIO concept, which was based on Suzuki's previous electric wheelchair "Senior Car" operable with a handlebar, but is now a motor driven wheelchair that runs on electricity produced by fuel cell unit. MIO is told to be user-friendly and also boasts a longer travel range compared to existing electric wheelchairs with a lead-acid battery. MIO's fuel cell unit employs a direct methanol that directly supplies methanol to the cell for hydrogen reaction along with a large-capacity Li-ion secondary battery. The hybrid wheelchair can run 40 km (25 miles) or more with one recharge of methanol (4 liters), and allows easier handling because there is no need to recharge from the mains power source as with electric wheelchairs, and at the same time offers user more information thru LCD display with information on remaining fuel, power generation state… Details on the fuel cell unit and the Li-ion secondary battery were detained, as Suzuki marked MIO as a prototype. This could mean that MIO still has many problems or that

Read more >>>