Self-balancing Wheel Chair

by ChengyuanW in Workshop > Electric Vehicles

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Self-balancing Wheel Chair

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Smart wheel

Nowadays there are plenty of self-balancing wheel chair in the market, most of them based on self- balancing mobile system which more commonly applied on scooters. But there is a huge price difference between a self-balancing scooter and a self-balancing wheel chair, even through the principle of these two are basically the same. for example, the Ogo self-balancing wheel chair USD 16,995 but the Segway scooter is only USD 500.(there are plenty of cheaper ones)

This project will show you the possibility of building your own Self-balancing wheel chair by using a cheap self- balancing scooter platform.

Step 1: Find a Cheap Scooter

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First, go get a relatively cheap but functional well scooter then get rid of its case.

Step 2: Build You Your Own Case

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You can 3d scan the base platform or reverse engineer to get the basic data. Build your own case with a chair on it in a 3D software. the chair can be installed on a rail and it should be able to move back and forth in order to let the user easily change the Center of gravity of the body and drive the scooter forward and backward (see the 0:43" of the video).

Step 3: Layout All the Part

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Layout all the parts you want to cut out and extract the outline of each piece, you can either use wood or Acrylic to make the parts. I choose wood (6mm thickness) because it's stronger and cheaper. for cutting tools you can use a laser cutter or a big CNC machine like Shopbot full-size PRSalpha. The CNC machine will be faster.

Step 4:Cutting the Pieces

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When you cutting the pieces, if the material you choose is too thick, you can give it multiple shots. It's safer and you will get a better quality.

Step5: Assembling

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The image is not giving a good example when you do the assembling please wear gloves especially wood parts.

Step6: Adjustment

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Make sure all the parts connect properly and the whole structure is stable enough.

Step 7: Test Drive

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Have fine Driving!