Excerpt from: Media dis&dat (click for full article)
A new wheel design by Salim Nasser — a NASA engineer, inventor and quadriplegic — can reduce the repetitive stress injuries that many wheelchair users face. Popular Science reports.
With standard manual wheelchairs, users have to grasp and push the
rim extending from the back wheels. It’s okay for self-propulsion, but
it takes a toll on shoulder and arm muscles.
This new wheel reduces the amount of energy expended by targeting bigger muscles: "Using a mechanical device called a planetary gear,
Nasser redesigned the wheel hub so that users pull it backwards in a
rowing motion to go forward. Planetary gears are used in automatic
transmissions and power tools to reverse and reduce motion, but no
wheelchair wheels on the market currently use this design."
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