Forum Proceedings

In November 1998 the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Technology Transfer (T²RERC), partnered with the RERC on Wheeled Mobility to begin the Demand-Pull Project on Wheeled Mobility.

The goal of this Project is to identify unmet needs in the wheeled mobility industry segment (manual and power wheelchairs, and scooters) and to facilitate the transfer of technology solutions from Federal Labs, research institutions and other advanced technology developers to meet these needs.

Through a series of expert interviews, the Project eventually focused on four technology areas: manual wheelchair propulsion; motors and drive-trains; materials and components; and power, power management and monitoring. Technology needs identified within these four areas represent important and unmet customer concerns representing significant business potential for manufacturers. Further, technology solutions required to address these needs are likely to be beyond current industry capabilities or resources.

Thus, the problem statements presented here are specific technology improvements which wheelchair manufacturers are ready to transfer, and which have consensus support from all the other stakeholder groups. These problem statements therefore represent high priority technology transfer needs within the Wheelchair Mobility industry.

The Project depends upon the participation of a wide variety of stakeholders. In the case of the Wheeled Mobility Project these include product end-users (consumers), referral sources (clinicians), evaluators of existing or developing technologies (clinical researchers), producers of technology for commercial application (manufacturers), innovators of new technology (laboratory, university and industry scientists), as well as representatives from various governmental agencies.

Full stakeholder participation helps to ensure that: unmet needs of consumers and manufacturers are clearly identified; the technological state-of-the-practice for current products is well characterized; and reasonable design and performance parameters are established for both short-term and long-term technology solutions. Particular benefits to stakeholders are: product customers help shape the design and performance characteristics of next generation products; scientists, engineers and clinicians become aware of research needs and opportunities; and manufacturers are introduced to business opportunities and advanced technology solutions.

The next section, Project Description, presents further details on the steps and process of the Wheeled Mobility Project.

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