This thesis is composed of two studies related to wheelchair propulsion biomechanics. The first study investigated the impact of cross-slope and surface roughness on wheelchair propulsion. Fifteen manual wheelchair users propelled across a five-meter platform which were set to level, 1°, or 2° cross slope, and attached with one of three surfaces including Teflon (slippery), wood (normal), and blind guide (rough). The study found main effects of both cross slope and surface roughness on stroke number and sum of work, and a main effect of cross slope on velocity. Subjects travelled slower, used more strokes, and expended more work with increasing cross slope. Subjects also used more strokes when propelling on the slippery and rough surfaces than on the level surface. They expended more work when propelling on the rough surface than on the level surface. When looking into bilateral propulsion parameters, we found that peak resultant force, peak wheel torque, and sum of work became significantly asymmetrical with the increase of cross slopes. Exposure to biomechanics loading can be reduced by avoiding slippery, rough, and cross slopes when possible. The second study consisted of a preliminary analysis on the validity of a wheelchair propulsion monitor (WPM) in estimating wheelchair propulsion biomechanics. The WPM integrates three devices including a wheel rotation datalogger, and an accelerometry-based device on the upper arm and underneath the wheelchair seat, respectively. Five wheelchair users were asked to push their own wheelchairs fitted with a SMARTWheel over level and sloped surfaces on two separate visits. The estimated stroke number and cadence by the WPM were consistent with the criterion measures by the SMARTWheel (ICC= 0.99 for stroke number, ICC=0.97 for cadence) with less than 5% absolute percentage errors for stroke number and 9% for cadence. The peak resultant force and wheel torque could be predicted to some extent by acceleration features on an individual subject basis. The study demonstrated the potential of the WPM in tracking wheelchair propulsion characteristics in the natural environment of wheelchair users.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PITT/oai:PITTETD:etd-07262011-154929 |
| Date | 01 September 2011 |
| Creators | Lin, Jui-Te |
| Contributors | Dan Ding, Rory Cooper, Alicia M. Koontz |
| Publisher | University of Pittsburgh |
| Source Sets | University of Pittsburgh |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.pitt.edu/ETD/available/etd-07262011-154929/ |
| Rights | restricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Pittsburgh or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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