The problem
Wheelchairs are an indispensable means of transportation for many of us, our friends and our family. We all know many places are now very accessible (we’re proud of our accessibility here at WavsGB), but there are still instances where getting from A to B is impossible for wheelchair users unless they have a helper or carer.
That’s why we’re so interested when we see innovative new projects that seek to improve the wheelchair.
One such project is Scewo, which is developing a wheelchair that can ascend and descend stairs, curbs and the like with ease.
The Scewo wheelchair
The Scewo wheelchair uses two big wheels to drive around. This is done with an active control to keep the chair level at every moment. The wheels allow to overcome obstacles like curbs, tram tracks, grass, mud, stones, etc. The wheelchair can turn on spot and is very agile while driving around. Stairs are climbed up sitting backward and driven down in the forward position. The tracks adapt to the angle of the stair automatically and keep the user level at all times.
Check out the updated video below – showing real world use.
[arve url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxf-fIubkMs” title=”Stair Climbing Wheelchair” description=”Scewo is developing a wheelchair that can ascend and descend stairs, curbs and the like with ease.” upload_date=”2022-07-14″ thumbnail=”https://i3.ytimg.com/vi/hxf-fIubkMs/maxresdefault.jpg” /]
Scewo was developed as a student project by ETH Zürich and ZhdK.
