SBIR Phase II: A portable, powered lift to instantly increase independence of all manual wheelchair users

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II is to improve the mobility of wheelchair users. There are more than 2.5 M wheelchair users in the US. This project will develop an electronic aftermarket add-on accessory to increase manual wheelchair users’ height up to 18 inches or more in 5 seconds.

The new wheelchair lift (WL) will increase their Quality of Life and their ability to independently perform activities of daily living (feeding, bathing, dressing) and instrumental activities of daily living (transportation, shopping, cooking, doing laundry, and housework). The solution will replace expensive home retrofitting ($20 K) and will reduce the need for help in outside settings, such as reaching for items on shelves, empowering the users.

The WL will bridge the gap between the disabled and the able-bodied population, providing a means to increase wheelchair users’ participation in the labor force (currently only 20%) and enabling more employment options. Similarly, the WL will offer employers an effective way to support workers with disabilities and reduce costs to adapt the work environment to provide reasonable accommodations.

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase II project seeks to generate a final functional prototype of the wheelchair lift (WL) ready for usability tests with end-users. The Phase II project extends prior work on a prototype satisfying the major design specifications of weight, lift maximum load, and time of ascension, de-risking the most significant technological challenges associated with the project.

The proposed activities will enable systems engineering of hardware and electronics development and the next generation prototype for testing and regulatory clearance. The prototype will be produced under Quality Management Systems and an industrial manufacturing process will be established.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.