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This study evaluates the use of a wheelchair balance board. The balance board was created as a sensory stimulation tool for users with various disabilities. It was originally designed to create vestibular stimulation for the person after they were loaded on. This study was used as a way to test if the balance board could be used for other things such as physical therapy and exercise. Ten able-bodied individuals were used to show the functionality of the device. They were asked to perform six different abdominal exercises while the muscle activity of their rectus abdominis and external obliques was measured using EMG electrodes. The exercises performed included: abdominal crunch, reverse crunch, full vertical crunch, torso twist, seated crunch, and sitting abdominal bend down. The last three exercises were performed on both stable ground and on the wheelchair balance board. This study found that the balance board did not cause any negative effects in terms of the abdominal muscle activation. In some cases it actually increased the muscle activation compared to the stable and floor exercises. There were no cases where the balance board caused a decrease in the amount of muscle activation in comparison to the floor exercises. The highest values for any muscle group activated in the entire study was found to be on the balance board during the sitting abdominal bend down. This demonstrates that the balance board shows promise as a tool for stimulating muscles not traditionally activated for people in a wheelchair.

Inkludering ska vara en självklarhet inom idrotten, men hur blir det när personer och organisationer har olika syn på vad inkludering är för något. Urvalet av personer med funktionsnedsättning är mycket färre än personer som inte har någon funktionsnedsättning. Det gör att det inte blir lika enkelt att organisera idrott för paraidrottare. Syftet med studien var att undersöka hur rullstolsburna paraidrottare upplever och erfar hur inkluderingen i deras olika idrotter fungerar eller inte fungerar. Frågeställningarna handlar om hur paraidrottare upplever inkludering, exkludering och vilka eventuella förbättringsåtgärder det skulle finnas för att inkludera fler. Materialet analyserades utifrån en inkluderingstrappa där första steget kallas segregering och innebär utanförskap. Ju högre upp i trappan desto mer inkluderad inom idrottsverksamhet, sista steget kallas inkluderad och innebär innanförskap. Semistrukturerade intervjuer (n=6) genomfördes med paraidrottare. Resultat visade att tillgänglighet och kunskap om parasport är viktiga faktorer till att paraidrottare ska känna sig inkluderande. Paraidrottare vill bli behandlade med samma förutsättningar, möjligheter och skyldigheter som övriga idrottare. En slutsats som kan dras är att inkludering de senast åren har blivit ett ämne inom idrott som värdesätts högt, dock finns det mycket kvar att göra för att paraidrottare ska känna sig helt inkluderande. Genom att skapa en högre medvetenhet om parasport och idrott för personer med funktionsnedsättning skulle det kunna bidra till det bättre. / Inclusion should be a matter of course in sports, but what happens when people and organizations have different views on what inclusion is. The sample of people with disabilities is much smaller than people who do not have any disabilities. This means that it will not be as easy to organize sports for para-athletes. The purpose of the study was to investigate how para-athletes in wheelchairs experience how inclusion in their various sports works or does not work. The questions are about how para- athletes experience inclusion, exclusion and what possible improvement measures there would be to include more. The material was analyzed based on an inclusion ladder where the first step is called segregation and means exclusion. The higher up the ladder, the more included within sports activities, the last step is called included and means insider ship. Semi- structured interviews (n=6) were conducted with para-athletes. Results showed that accessibility and knowledge of para sports are important factors for para- athletes to feel included. Para athletes want to be treated with the same conditions, opportunities and obligations as other athletes. A conclusion that can be drawn is that in recent years, inclusion has become a subject in sports that is highly valued, however, there is still a lot to be done for para-athletes to feel fully inclusive. By creating a higher awareness of para sports and sports for people with disabilities, it could contribute to the better.

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<p>Using a cross-sectional design, Bandura's (1986) Social Cognitive Theory and Self-Efficacy Theory (1977) were used as a framework to determine whether wheelchairuse self-efficacy and exercise barrier self-efficacy mediate the relationship between wheelchair mobility and leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) in people with spinal cord injury (SCI). Fourty-six manual wheelchair users (76.1 % male), with varying levels of SCI (80.4% paraplegic, 47.8% complete injuries) participated in this study. Participants completed The Wheelchair Skills Test version 4.1 (Wheelchair Skills Test Version 4.1 [WST 4.1],2008) which measured wheelchair mobility, a modified barrier self-efficacy questionnaire (McAuley & Mihalko, 1998) which measured exercise barrier self-efficacy, the Wheelchair Mobility Confidence Scale (WMCS; Rushton & Miller, 2009) which measured wheelchair-use self-efficacy, and the Physical Activity Recall Assessment for people with SCI (PARA-SCI; Martin Ginis, Latimer, Hicks & Craven, 2005) which measured LTPA. It was hypothesized that (1) there would be a positive relationship between wheelchair mobility and LTPA, and (2) wheelchair-use self-efficacy and exercise barrier self-efficacy would mediate this relationship. Using linear regression models, a positive association between wheelchair mobility and LTPA was established (β = .29, p < .05). Exercise barrier self-efficacy was a significant partial mediator, explaining 47.7% ofthe variance in the mobility-LTPA relationship. Wheelchair-use selfefficacy was a non-significant mediator. This thesis has practical and theoretical implications for understanding and improving LTPA participation and represents the first study to determine the relationship between wheelchair mobility, self-efficacy, and LTPA in people living with SCI.</p> / Master of Science (MS)

<p>A power assisted wheelchair combines human power, which is delivered by the arms through the pushrims, with electrical motors, which are powered by a battery. Today’s electric power assisted wheelchairs use force sensors to measure the torque exerted on the pushrims by the user. The force sensors in the pushrims are rather expensive and this approach also makes the wheels a little bit clumsy. The objective with this project is to find a new, better and cheaper solution that does not use expensive force sensors in the pushrims. The new power assisted wheelchair will instead only rely on its velocity, which is measured with rotational encoders, as feedback signal and thereby the project name “Torque Sensor Free Power Assisted Wheelchair”. </p><p> </p><p>The project consisted of two main parts; an extensive construction part, where an ordinary joystick controlled motorized wheelchair has been rebuild to the new power assisted wheelchair without torque sensors and a development part, where different torque sensor free controllers has been designed, simulated, programmed and tested.</p><p>The project resulted in a torque sensor free power assisted wheelchair, where the final implemented design is a proportional derivative controller, which gives a very good assisting system that is robust and insensitive to measurement noise. The proportional derivative control design gives two adjustable parameters, which can be tuned to fit a certain user; one parameter is used to adjust the amplification of the user’s force and the other one is used to change the lasting time of the propulsion influence.</p><p>Since the new assisting control system only relies on the velocity, the torque sensor free power assisted wheelchair will besides giving the user assisting power also give an assistant, which pushes the wheelchair, additional power. This is a big advantage compared to the pushrim activated one, where this benefit for the assistant is not possible.</p>

A power assisted wheelchair combines human power, which is delivered by the arms through the pushrims, with electrical motors, which are powered by a battery. Today’s electric power assisted wheelchairs use force sensors to measure the torque exerted on the pushrims by the user. The force sensors in the pushrims are rather expensive and this approach also makes the wheels a little bit clumsy. The objective with this project is to find a new, better and cheaper solution that does not use expensive force sensors in the pushrims. The new power assisted wheelchair will instead only rely on its velocity, which is measured with rotational encoders, as feedback signal and thereby the project name “Torque Sensor Free Power Assisted Wheelchair”. The project consisted of two main parts; an extensive construction part, where an ordinary joystick controlled motorized wheelchair has been rebuild to the new power assisted wheelchair without torque sensors and a development part, where different torque sensor free controllers has been designed, simulated, programmed and tested. The project resulted in a torque sensor free power assisted wheelchair, where the final implemented design is a proportional derivative controller, which gives a very good assisting system that is robust and insensitive to measurement noise. The proportional derivative control design gives two adjustable parameters, which can be tuned to fit a certain user; one parameter is used to adjust the amplification of the user’s force and the other one is used to change the lasting time of the propulsion influence. Since the new assisting control system only relies on the velocity, the torque sensor free power assisted wheelchair will besides giving the user assisting power also give an assistant, which pushes the wheelchair, additional power. This is a big advantage compared to the pushrim activated one, where this benefit for the assistant is not possible.

Nowadays disabled persons are actively integrated into social life. Different compensatory equipment allows them to work and travel independently and one of such means is the wheelchair. Not every disabled person has possibilities to travel by his own car, it is more convenient to use public transport facilities. Transportation safety of the wheelchair users is one of the most important problems facing engineers and transit providers, becouse improperly or totally unsecured wheelchair can lose the stability and tip over during the emergency driving situations. The main object of the scientific research work is complex dynamic system "Man - Wheelchair - Vehicle", whis is under action of environmental factors (road roughness, motion oscillations of vehicle). The main tasks of the work are to form and research nonlinear model of dynamic system considered and to define system's stability limits, providing means for safe travel; to determine main characteristics of the external action and analyze its influence on to dynamic system; to build engineering computation methodology for estimation of the rational parameters to fasten the wheelchair to the vehicle.

Tato diplomová práce představuje koncept elektrického invalidního vozíku ovládaného lidskou myslí. Tento koncept je určen pro osoby, které elektrický invalidní vozík nemohou ovládat klasickými způsoby, jakým je například joystick. V práci jsou popsány čtyři hlavní komponenty konceptu: elektroencefalograf, brain-computer interface (rozhraní mozek-počítač), systém sdílené kontroly a samotný elektrický invalidní vozík. V textu je představena použitá metodologie a výsledky provedených experimentů. V závěru jsou nastíněna doporučení pro budoucí vývoj.