Development of folding three-wheeled wheelchair frame for the Developing World

Currently, wheelchairs in developing countries are supplied both through donations from NGOs and local wheelchair workshops in these countries. A popular type of wheelchair manufactured by these workshops is a three-wheeled wheelchair, which has a long wheel base and third castor wheel in front of the chair. These wheelchairs perform better in the rough terrain of the developing world, but do not have a folding frame, and thus cannot be transported. This severely diminishes the ability of the wheelchair's user to travel far distances and generate income. Because of this problem, this project aims at developing a frame for the three-wheeled wheelchair that folds into small dimensions similar to a traditional four-wheeled wheelchair.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Mechanical Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2009

Author dc:creator

• Maguire, Amanda Joy

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Anette Hosoi.

• Mechanical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/54682

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/54682