This paper describes a novel stair-climbing wheelchair operated by human upper body using lever propelled rotary-legs with posture transition mechanism. The design principle of this wheelchair is to make use of the user's latent upper body capability, with appropriate mechanisms to enable extended functionality of the regular wheelchair without the need of heavy, expensive mechanisms or electric motors. An arm-operated mechanism allows the user to overcome steps and stairs independently without any external power source. The developed wheelchair consists of manual wheels with casters for planar locomotion, which provides capabilities equivalent to a regular manual wheelchair. In addition, the wheelchair has a rotary-legs mechanism based on lever propulsion control for climbing stairs. It also has a passive mechanism powered by gas springs for posture transition to shift the user's center of gravity between two positions for planar locomotion and for stair-climbing. The proposed design consists of only passive components, which makes the wheelchair more compact and lightweight. In this paper we describe in detail the development of this wheelchair and an investigation of how users can climb stairs independently. We also present evaluation experiments with a healthy participant and a dummy to investigate the feasibility of the proposed design. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

中文翻译：

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带旋转腿杠杆推进控制的爬楼梯轮椅

本文介绍了一种新型的爬楼梯轮椅，由人体上半身操作，采用杠杆驱动的旋转腿，带有姿势转换机构。这种轮椅的设计原理是利用用户潜在的上半身能力，通过适当的机制来扩展普通轮椅的功能，而不需要笨重、昂贵的机制或电动机。手臂操作机构允许用户在没有任何外部电源的情况下独立地克服台阶和楼梯。开发的轮椅由带有用于平面运动的脚轮的手动轮组成，可提供与普通手动轮椅相当的功能。此外，轮椅具有基于杠杆推进控制的旋转腿机构，用于爬楼梯。它还具有由气体弹簧提供动力的被动机构，用于姿势转换，将用户的重心在两个位置之间移动，用于平面运动和爬楼梯。提议的设计仅由无源组件组成，这使轮椅更加紧凑和轻便。在本文中，我们详细描述了这款轮椅的发展以及用户如何独立爬楼梯的调查。我们还提供了一个健康参与者和一个假人的评估实验，以研究所提议设计的可行性。图形概要 在本文中，我们详细描述了这款轮椅的发展以及用户如何独立爬楼梯的调查。我们还展示了一个健康参与者和一个假人的评估实验，以研究所提议设计的可行性。图形概要 在本文中，我们详细描述了这款轮椅的发展以及用户如何独立爬楼梯的调查。我们还展示了一个健康参与者和一个假人的评估实验，以研究所提议设计的可行性。图形概要