Yasuhisa Okumoto

Abstract: At present, various types of welfare equipment for the elderly and disabled  have been rapidly developed in Japan, especially wheelchairs have widely spread. Though many kinds of wheelchairs are used recently in accordance with each purpose, this paper focused on an electric motor cart for the welfare, and studies concerning operability and amenity were carried out by the biomechanical analysis using a digital human model and the EMG measurements of a human body, following the questionnaire analysis: (1) optimization of seat height and inclined angle of the backrest, (2) verification of optimum position of the driving panel, (3) optimum shape of the operation equipment such as a speed control dial and an indicator. Finally the design improvements of the electric motor cart were proposed.