Mobile platform for a transferless displacement of people in wheelchair in outdoors sites – HANDILIB

Handi'Lib project aims at designing and implementing a technical assistance in the form of a two-seater mobile transport vehicle allowing a person in manual or electric wheelchair and, if needed, a care person easy and safe moves in ecological sites without transfer.

The term ecological site refers to external environments with uneven paths on which the move of the manual or electric wheelchair would be difficult, e.g.: public parks and gardens, leisure centers ...
The vehicles currently on the market for this use are suitable for disabled population with normal cognitive abilities, comfortable in the control of manual and/or electrical wheelchairs, not requiring assistance with boarding/disembarkation, able, if needed, of managing the transfer from their seat to the vehicle.

The population of users with disabilities referred to Handi'Lib project includes, besides the one mentioned above, people with cognitive disorders, movement disorders that make them unable to pilot the vehicle. They need assistance during a transfer, to drive for them (quadriplegic), for safety reasons (children).

Handi'Lib project will improve the quality of life and the well-being of people who, because of their disabilities, cannot access a set of ecological sites and services.

The mobile platform will have the features:
- No transfer of the person who remains on his/her wheelchair,
- The presence of a seat for an accompanying person,
- Easy boarding/disembarking: boarding of the chair on the platform in reverse and forward descent by means of a ramp and/or adjustment of ground clearance,
- Enhanced control and stabilization of the flat-bottomed part on which the wheelchair is placed,
- Max speed 10 km/h, reduced if necessary
- Integration of devices and interfaces adapted to the user's deficit
- Integration of communication devices and services (network connection, GPS location, connection for failure or emergency, etc.)
A competent clinical service will proceed to its evaluation and validation with both a set of valid users and disabled users in ecological situation by establishing a clinical protocol and the constitution of assessment and validation files.

Given the market of vehicles for people with disabilities and the existing ones, this platform is essentially intended to be offered to communities to equip parks, gardens, etc. Its great scalability allows to consider extending its use to people with disabilities in other sites and other use cases and also to the valid persons.

Handi'Lib project primarily proposes to fill a niche service for the improvement in the quality of life of disabled not presently provided. With its possible developments, it is associated with a real industrial marketing project with significant job creation.