Adapting a regular office chair for people with limited mobility

Abstract

This article explains the construction and creation of an adapted office chair that is completely motorized. Its purpose is to be used by people who have reduced mobility; the idea came from a person that has locomotion difficulties. The chair makes easy access to inner environments such as domestic places, commercial areas, among others, easier and smoother, offering the users more security, comfortable, independence and freedom. The maintenance is extremely easy to do and the whole system was developed with a low cost. It attends to an extensive range of users in denser areas full of resource, like regions which have low population and also problems to access. The project is based on a conventional chair used in offices that was equipped with mechanical and electrical systems which make possible its movement in any direction as well as to turn three hundred sixty. When compared with a conventional wheelchair, this new model presents height adjustment motorized to the seat, making better the accessibility of users in high places. There is the possibility to adjust the seat of the chair to match the height of other movable equipment, making the displacement of the user more comfortable and safer. The proposal of the project came from the need to produce a more dynamic and accessible equipment to help people realize simple tasks, to help them do jobs that are not possible for those who use the conventional wheelchair. At the same time we cared to make the system be accessible to the population in general. The system was thought and developed by the students of the technical course of Mechatronics by Pronatec in the University Center UNA for integrating work. The students had support of the PARAMEC group from the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG) and currently has support of SIGHT PUC-MINAS as well.