Wheelchairs

Back in 2018, we heard about a full-size foldable wheel known as the Revolve. Its inventor, Andrea Mocellin, has now incorporated the technology into a wheelchair that folds down to fit inside an airliner's overhead baggage area.

If you're the user of a powered wheelchair, it goes without saying that you really don't want that chair to tip over, or to crash into obstacles. The LUCI system – which gets added to existing chairs – is intended to keep those things from happening.

Just because someone has limited mobility, does that mean they should be limited to traversing smooth pavement? Not according to husband-and-wife team Zack and Cambry Nelson, who are now marketing their off-road motorized "wheelchair."

Air travel can be difficult for the mobility-challenged … they have to get a wheelchair at the airport, or make sure that theirs gets stowed. Engineer Richard Williams has developed an alternative: a folding wheelchair that doubles as a carry-on bag.

The 46th Tokyo Motor Show is due to open its doors later this month, and the Yamaha Motor Co has six world premieres to show off.

The team behind the AbleChair seeks to open up some exciting possibilities with a powerful, versatile wheelchair that enables users to easily switch between a wide variety of positions through a companion smartphone app.

​According to researchers from the Vienna University of Technology, propelling conventional wheelchairs puts users' joints in unnatural and potentially injury-causing positions. They've developed what is claimed to be a more ergonomic alternative, in the form of a hand-cranked wheelchair.

​Graphene – the "wonder material" that's stronger than steel and tougher than diamond – has recently found its way into experimental aircraft, clothing and concrete. And now Küschall has announced the Superstar, the first wheelchair to be built using the one atom thick form of carbon.​

​Wheelchair users face a number of challenges, including the fact that remaining seated for long periods of time can give them pressure-induced skin ulcers. A new adaptive seat cushion, however, may keep that from happening.

​Normally, wheelchair users move themselves along by pushing the rims of the two large wheels forward. But installing a set of Rowheels allows them to pull back on the rims, and still move forward. Now the company behind Rowheels has started selling a fully-kitted out wheelchair – the Revolution.​

This airless tire has some interesting advantages. Air Suspension Wheels can't go flat or get punctures, you can change treads with a spanner and no jacks, and they offer some interesting dynamic capabilities that could see them being very useful in large mining applications and even wheelchairs.

​While most of us use smartphones, tablets or computers with relative ease, doing so can be very difficult for people with upper-body mobility issues. Paired with assistive switches, Komodo OpenLab's Tecla-e lets users control up to eight smart devices at once.