Student invents “stair-climbing wheelchair” for his grandparents

“My grandparents are over 80 years old, and they live in a seven story building without elevator in Chongqing, a mountainous city. Having weak feet and legs, getting inside and outside the building is very inconvenient”, said Yutian Wang, a 10th grade student from Beijing Industrial University affiliated middle school. In addition, elder people may easily fall when climbing the stairs, which can even lead to irreversible consequences.

Yutian would like to contribute more to improve his grandparents' quality of life. Since middle school, he started to notice the barrier-free facilities at the subway station and was thinking of developing a wheelchair that would be capable of climbing the stairs to replace walking. “The commercial products are usually very expensive and lack the shock absorptions and other safety measurements”, the inventor explained.

With reference to the movement of tanks, Yutian Wang has developed a “stair-climbing” wheelchair with a self-balancing function. He fitted the wheelchair with an electronic gyroscope and an accelerometer, being able to provide real-time monitoring of the angle between the chair and the ground. Once the angle changes, the system will control the two-axis balancing system under the wheelchair seat to adjust and ensure the seat is flat (when the stair slope is less than 30 degrees) or close to flat (when the star slope is between 30 and 45 degrees). He also included a shock absorption system and an automatic protection system, which consistently evaluates the environment and fixes the wheelchair on the stairs in case of unexpected movements.

Wang’s stair-climbing wheelchair prototype has won several awards in innovation contests. He was constantly improving the wheelchair during his busy study and already developed the device’s 5th generation. “However, those are not enough. In the next generation I believe it would be necessary to include GPS location and alarm system for normal and emergency situations, and also auto-driving, similar to the elevator, you just press the button and it will take you to the certain floor”.

Wang believes that his invention can be promoted and included in the field of community-based elderly care system, and become a public facility that could serve more seniors and disabled people.

Adapted from: http://bit.ly/2EY6pox