Isaac Repinski, “Experimental Validity of a Wheelchair Propulsion in Pediatric Manual Wheelchair Users”
Mentor: Jacob Rammer, Biomedical Engineering

Biomechanical assessment of steady-state manual wheelchair propulsion is often difficult to conduct overground in laboratory conditions, due to space constraints. Wheelchair roller systems, an analog to treadmills for running, resolve this issue but introduce questions of validity. The purpose of this study is to assess differences in upper extremity kinematics between roller and overground conditions in a population of pediatric manual wheelchair users. These aims will be completed by analyzing an existing data set of twelve pediatric manual wheelchair users, each tested in overground and roller conditions, to obtain upper extremity triaxial joint kinematics and comparing the two conditions and assessing the validity of the roller platform. The study validates necessary equipment to conduct laboratory research involving manual wheelchair users, thus continuing the current line of research and enabling future work to be done with the system.

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