Tag Archives: Zurich University of the Arts

Swiss Students Create a Stair-Climbing Wheelchair

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ETH Zurich Scalevo Stair-Climbing Wheelchair 01

Stairs and wheelchairs don’t go well together, and since many architects forget to add ramps to the buildings they design, 10 students from Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich) and the Zurich University of the Arts are looking to circumvent the problem.

The Scalevo Wheelchair, as the 10 students named their creation, doesn’t look much different from a typical (albeit very modern) wheelchair. On flat ground, it employs two Segway-like wheels, but magic starts happening when users needing to climb stairs push a button that summons two rubber tracks. The concept is not revolutionary, as it has been seen before even in stair-climbing robots. However, it’s great to see a fresh take on it.

“We have two main wheels, two large wheels to drive around on the flat ground in a balancing mode like a Segway. And then we have two rubber tracks which we can extend to the angle of the stairs and let the wheelchair be always upright on every angle on the stairs,” pointed out Carlos Gomes, of ETH Zurich.

“Tracks are excellent for this use case because they have a very large footprint, which makes it near impossible to tilt, and they are also very smooth so it doesn’t feel like you’re driving up stairs, so it just feels like you’re driving up a ramp because they’re so flat and they adapt to the stair profile. So it doesn’t matter if the stair is wooden or metal or glass, the tracks they grip and there’s no danger of slipping,” added Miro Voellmy.

“The great thing is that everything on this wheelchair is automated. […] If I want to climb the stairs I can just drive up to them, turn around, press one button and all I have to do is control the velocity I want to drive at. The alignment on the stairs, the leveling of the wheelchair driver, is automated and he can control it, he can view the back with a back facing camera, and have a full, safe, driving experience. […] It was built very compact, so it’s not much wider than a classic manual wheelchair and it can still go under tables, you can go through narrow doors and use it indoors without any hassle, so it’s extremely compact in comparison to different wheelchairs and it’s very easy to use.”

Gomes explained that the wheelchair has been tested thoroughly: “We tested the wheelchair on several staircases, even on a spiral staircase, because we can move the tracks independently and all kinds of staircases we are able to drive (on) like from 34 to 17, I think, degrees. And this is almost every stair. You can drive everywhere.”

There still are some skeptics out there who claim that Scalevo will fail because of the same reason Segway’s version from 15 years ago did: it’s too heavy to be loaded in a car.

Scalevo will also be seen at the 2016 Cybathlon, a championship organized by ETH Zurich for disabled pilots that could approach life differently using advanced assistive devices.

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[via VentureBeat]

Birdly VR Machine Is a Full-Body Flight Simulator

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Birdly VR Full-Body Flight Simulator - Oculus Rift

Man’s dream of flying has yet to materialize, as planes and jet packs don’t really qualify. Birdly, a virtual reality machine based on Oculus Rift, might help with the illusion of being among the clouds, though.

The Birdly full-body flight simulator was developed by a team of researchers from the Zurich University of Arts, comprised from Max Rheiner, Fabian Troxler, Thomas Tobler, and Thomas Erdin. The team collaborated with BirdLife-Naturzentrum Neeracherried for this incredible feat.

According to its creators, this weird contraption “is an installation which explores the experience of a bird in flight. It tries to capture the mediated flying experience, with several methods. Unlike a common flight simulator you do not control a machine you embody a bird, the Red Kite. To evoke this embodiment we mainly rely on the sensory-motor coupling. The participant can control the simulator with his hands and arms, which directly correlates to the wings and the primary feathers of the bird. Those inputs are reflected in the flight model of the bird and displayed physically by the simulator through nick, roll and heave movements.”

Using an Oculus Rift HMD (head-mounted display), Birdly gives its wearer the impression that he is gliding through wuthering heights in the body of a Red Kite. Many are the ones who have wanted at some point in their lives to be or feel like a bird of prey, and Birdly can help them achieve just that.

This wouldn’t be realistic if there wasn’t anything else besides the visual aspect of the flight. However, the team added some sensory tricks to the mix: “To intensify the embodiment we include additional sonic, olfactoric and wind feedback. Soundwise you perceive only the roaring of the wind and the flaps of the wings. The olfactoric feedback is based on the location which the bird flies over in the scenery and ranges from the scent of a forest, soil, to several other odors of the wilderness. According to the speed of the bird the simulator regulates the headwind with a fan.”

Now all that these researchers have to do is to find a propelling system capable of lifting Birdly from the ground up to a reasonable height. Or they could use this in 0 gravity, as the sensation of weightlessness would make things a lot more interesting.

Be social! Follow Walyou on Facebook and Twitter, and read more related stories about the Vertigo Simulator and the IKEA app that uses VR to place furniture in your home.