Most powered wheelchairs have at least two problems: they can't climb stairs, and the user has to remain in a single seated position. An experimental new robotic wheelchair, however, addresses both shortcomings.
  • echo64@lemmy.worldEnglish
    20·
    1 year ago

    Whilst this is cute and really only a university research project. It’s always worth remembering there is a long history of tech companies coming in with their new wheelchairs with special features that are unmaintainable and unrepariable as soon as the startup failed which is usually pretty quickly.

  • Markimus@lemmy.worldEnglish
    4·
    1 year ago

    This is not a new technology, I’m not sure how practical this is at the moment given how heavy / bulky it is compared to how it would be otherwise, as well as how expensive the technology is.

    The transforming wheels technology looks promising though, that could fundamentally change everything; whether it works in practice is really whether the wheels are load-bearing or not.

  • Markimus@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    1 year ago

    Instead of transforming wheels, when are we going to move to some sort of AI-driven robot legs attached to a chair? Evolution has already solved this problem.