Charles W. Davidson
College of Engineering
Department of Mechanical
and Aerospace Engineering
One Washington Square
San Jose, CA, 95192-0087

408-924-3850 (voice)
408-924-3995 (fax)

www.engr.sjsu.edu/mae
mecheng@email.sjsu.edu

A team of four mechanical engineering students, led by Professor Raymond Yee, designed this wheelchair that can climb up and down stairs by using only the wheelchair control system. In developing a successful solution, the team had to maintain the stability of the wheelchair and make the stair-climbing mechanism deployable and storable in a way that wouldn't impact the normal operation of the chair. To achieve their goal, the students added a track system (yellow in photo) to a regular wheelchair and altered several others of its components, including the drive shaft and frame sections. The track system is attached to the frame via a four-bar mechanism that deploys and stores the track system via a remote-controlled linear actuator.