Intelliwheels Gears up for Faster Wheelchairs

July 26th, 2011 by Jo Borrás

Electric powered vehicles are better than fossil fuel powered vehicles, but fossil fuels have a way of creeping into conversations about electric vehicles. Perhaps that’s rightly so. After all, what good does a broad adoption of EVs do for the world if we’ve just offset fossil fuel use from our cars to our power stations, right? Right. So, given that electric power is good, human-power (whenever possible) is probably better — and any new technology that encourages us to power ourselves around town should probably be welcomed with open arms.

Welcome, then, Intelliwheels, which bring the kind of multi-gear ease bicyclists take for granted to an unexpected place: wheelchairs.

Designed by Scott Daigle, a grad student at the University of Illinois, Intelliwheels encourage those who find themselves wheelchair-bound (either permanently or temporarily) to “row their own,” using an automatic gear-shift system (AGS) that mechanically detects the force and resistance being applied to the wheelchair — as well as the angle of slope — and alters its gear ratios accordingly. Because the gear-shift is automatic, users don’t need to change their current behavior or think about which gear to employ — the job just gets easier.

Innovative human-powered products like Daigle’s Intelliwheels will help make it easier for many people to turn away from expensive, battery-powered chairs which draw energy from a (potentially dirty, potentially unicorn-powered) electric grid and — because of problems associated with safe battery disposal — pose a significant environmental hazard in many cases. Daigle’s design will also enable wheelchair-bound individuals in high-rise apartments, developing nations, or low-income areas that may not have easy access to suitable electric outlets get around much more easily than before.

Daigle predicts the Intelliwheel AGS system will be available for public sale by this time next year.

Source | Photos: Gizmag

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Tags: AGS, automatic gear-shift system, gear, human-powered, intelliwheel, self-powered, shift gears, US, wheelchair

About the Author

Jo Borrás I've been involved in motorsports and tuning since 1997, and write for a number of blogs in the Important Media network. You can find me on Twitter, Skype (jo.borras) or Google+.