IEEE Trans Neural Syst Rehabil Eng. 2019 Sep;27(9):1770-1779. doi: 10.1109/TNSRE.2019.2932121. Epub 2019 Jul 31.
Powered wheelchair users can experience negative health effects from reduced physical activity. If a user could exercise by driving the chair, it might improve fitness. This paper presents the development of MOVit, an exercise-enabling, wheelchair driving interface. The design goal of MOVit was that users cyclically move their arms to drive the chair, thereby providing a light level of exercise while driving. MOVit supports this arm movement with custom mobile arm supports that also serve as the sensors that provide controller inputs. Here, we first quantified how increasing the frequency and amplitude of arm movement increase oxygen consumption and heart rate. Then, we evaluated two novel control methods for driving by moving the arm supports. Participants without impairment ( N = 24 ) were randomized to one of the two methods, or conventional joystick control, and performed driving tests over two days on a simulator and test course. Our results indicate that driving speed and accuracy were significantly lowered with the exercise-enabling methods compared to joystick control (ANOVA, ), but the decreases were small (speed was ~0.1 m/s less and course tracking error ~1 cm greater). These results show, for the first time, the feasibility of exercising while driving a powered wheelchair.
动力轮椅使用者可能会因活动量减少而产生负面健康影响。如果使用者可以通过驾驶轮椅来进行运动，那么可能会提高其健康水平。本文介绍了 MOVit 的开发，这是一种可实现运动功能的轮椅驾驶接口。MOVit 的设计目标是让使用者周期性地移动手臂来驾驶轮椅，从而在驾驶过程中提供轻度的运动水平。MOVit 通过定制的移动手臂支撑件来支持这种手臂运动，这些支撑件同时也是提供控制器输入的传感器。在这里，我们首先量化了增加手臂运动的频率和幅度如何增加耗氧量和心率。然后，我们评估了两种通过移动手臂支撑件来驱动的新型控制方法。无障碍参与者（N=24）被随机分配到两种方法之一，或传统的操纵杆控制，并在模拟器和测试道上进行了两天的驾驶测试。我们的结果表明，与操纵杆控制相比，使用运动增强方法时驾驶速度和准确性显著降低（方差分析，），但降低幅度很小（速度降低约 0.1m/s，跟踪误差增加约 1cm）。这些结果首次表明，在驾驶动力轮椅的同时进行锻炼是可行的。
