Articles techniques et présentations

Manual wheelchair users suffer shoulder pain and injury in the long term because of unconscious overuse.

The ‘SENSEWHEEL’, which interposes three identical load cells between pushrim and rear wheel, measures the three components of pushing force Fx, Fy and Fz, and axial torque Tx applied at each load cell. Strain gauges were located on a diaphragm forming one face of the load cell. The location of the gauges was optimized using COMSOL Multiphysics®. Individual calibration of each load cell was carried out, and measured loads were then combined to find resultant forces on the pushrim. The first instrumented SENSEWHEEL has been constructed, calibrated, and used in a limited clinical trial.