Human-Powered Wheelchair Lift for Vans

Design Team
Christopher Balino, Ovilia Hanafiah
Jerry Kim, Nelly Nganga, Alyanna Tenorio

Design Advisor

Professional Contact

Prof. Jim Papadopoulos

Paul Bowers

Abstract
Paul Bowers, a paraplegic wheelchair user and activist for the disabled community,
dislikes his wheelchair vehicle lift because it is noisy, slow, and expensive. Current
regulations for wheelchair vehicle lifts - designed for extremely heavy loads that are
appropriate for a public service - are not necessary for most paraplegic users who drive
their own vehicles. Therefore, he requested a human-powered lift that is smoother,
simpler, lighter, and more ergonomic. The team has worked closely with Paul to
determine the best lift alternative: a ParaLift design that enables a high-functioning
paraplegic wheelchair user to board a platform parallel to the vehicle, complete a pull-up
motion using an overhead bar to raise himself and the lift to the level of the vehicles
floor, swivel himself into the vehicle, and stow the lift away. A system of counterbalance
weights will be used to facilitate the manual lift of the user, platform and wheelchair.
Entry through the passenger-side door makes it usable in any parking space and avoids
traffic. After establishing a final design, the main components of the lift were fabricated
and tested to further refine the design. The lift will be sent for further evaluation at the
Landsberger Rehabilitation Engineering Lab, which focuses on assistive devices for the
disabled community, at California State University Los Angeles.

Grab
bar

Column for
translation
and rotation
Cable
force

Lifting
slider
Platform

Stowing
slider

For more information, please contact j.papadopoulos@neu.edu.

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The Need for Project

This device will facilitate entry

With Paul Bowers serving as a professional contact, the goal of

and exit of a paraplegic user, this project is to help manual wheelchair users by devising a less
who also serves as the driver conspicuous mechanism to climb into their self-driven vehicle. Current
of the vehicle, into and out of regulations for wheelchair vehicle lifts - designed for extremely heavy
their van. loads that are more appropriate for a public transportation service - are
not necessary for most private vehicles, let alone wheelchair users that
drive their own vehicle. Hydraulic-powered lifts that are currently
offered on the market are expensive, slow, and obtrusive, drawing
unwanted attention to the user.
The design in question of an alternative wheelchair lift for vans
presents an ergonomic, human-powered mechanism that is smoother,
lighter, simpler, and quieter. This solution is currently intended for
research and evaluation purposes at the Landsberger Rehabilitation
Engineering Lab at CSULA and will not be commercially available. In
a larger context, Paul and the design team envision that the
development of this human-powered ParaLift could spark a needed
conversation about the disabled community and their needs.

The Design Project Objectives and Requirements

In addition to being compact, Design Objectives
affordable, fast, and quiet, the

The wheelchair lift must account for the following design factors,

design must enable passenger- in order of increasing importance: cost, noise, size, speed, ease of use,
side entry by a single operator. and safety. The design will take advantage of the wheelchair users
upper body strength to perform a modest-force pull-up motion to rise
up to the level of the van floor and easily enter it. The lift must also
deploy to all levels, such as ground, curb, and intermediate positions.
Design Requirements
The wheelchair lift must be a fraction of the cost of current
hydraulic-powered lifts. While typical van conversions cost $15,000 to
an upwards of $30,000, including body and chassis work, the cutting
and lowering of the floor, the cost of the lift itself, and installation, the
designed ParaLift must cost less than $5,000 to manufacture. In terms
of size, the lift must be easily stowed, installable into common
wheelchair-converted minivans with sliding doors, such as the Toyota
Sienna, Dodge Grand Caravan, and Chrysler Town & Country, and
allow for use in regular parking-lot spaces and curbside street parking.

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With regard to speed, the lift will be more than twice as fast as current
lifts, taking 1 minute to operate when entering or exiting the vehicle. In
addressing safety, the lift must incorporate design features that are
addressed in regulations for level-changing mechanisms and boarding
devices, such as the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards and the
Americans with Disabilities Act Accessibility Guidelines. These safety
features include, but are not limited to, visual/audible alignment
sensors, safety lips on the platform, and safety locks that prevent the
counterbalance from falling when not needed.

Design Concepts Considered

Several concepts were

The counterbalance mechanism served as a major area of focus for

examined for the the design. Existing mechanisms that were considered were weights
counterbalance, a major (Ref 2.2.5) and/or springs (Ref 2.2.6). Using a counterweight system
component of the design. that reduces the users effort, the user need only lift (when entering) or
push down (when exiting) the difference between their weight and the
counterweight. A counterweight that is about equal to 60% of the lift
and users weight would be connected to the platform using pulleys and
cables. While effective, a weight system would require an appropriate
amount of space in the car and design.
Another possible counterbalance system uses springs, like the gas
springs that open the hood of a car and torsion springs that lift and
lower garage doors. A specific type of extension-spring counterbalance,
using a zero-length spring, was of interest because of its ability to
balance a specified weight at any position. The use of springs, however,
was found to be difficult, as they require geometric compensation to
apply a constant force and would have to lift a load of at least 200 lb. A
weight counterbalance was chosen because of its ease of use in
adjusting the system for different loads.
Two types of leveling mechanisms were considered for the
platform: raising and lowering via a column or the use of a twoparallelogram / four-bar component (Ref 2.2.7). The platform was also
initially designed to include a turntable bearing to allow rotation into
and out of the vehicle. However, rotation about the lift column was
chosen instead.

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Recommended Design Concept

A steel column serves as the

The recommended design concept includes a column, weight

foundation of the lift design, to counterbalance system, sliding system composed of a lifting slider and
which a lifting slider, stowing stowing slider, platform, and grab bar.
slider, and platform are

A steel column is being used to anchor the wheelchair lift system

attached. into the car. Steel was chosen because of its strength and low cost. The
weight counterbalance was chosen over a spring system because of its
Stowing
slider

Lifting
slider

ease of use and adaptibility. The lifting slider counterbalances the

weight of the user and the platform, while the stowing slider
counterbalances the platform alone (Ref 4.2.2). These sliders have three
different configurations shown on the left: lifted, when the user and
platform are level with the floor of the van; deployed, when the empty

Platform

platform is level with the ground; and stowed, when the lifting slider
remains low but the empty platform is level with the floor of the van.
The platform features a base plate and sliding rails (Ref 4.2.1). The

Lifted position
(lifter up)

base plate is connected to support beams that are, in turn, connected to

sliders on the main column. The black plate includes grooves for the
sliding track. Safety lips line the platform perimeter.
To operate the ParaLift for entry, the vans automatic sliding door
will open and the platform will slide partially outside of the vehicle.
The user will use a hooked gripping tool to rotate the platform parallel
to the vehicle and unstow the platform down to ground level. After
stowing the gripping tool, the user will board the platform. Using the
locking grab bar, the user will operate a counterbalance release and
complete an assisted pull-up to become level with the van floor, then

Deployed position
(lifter down)

rotate 90 into the van. The user is able to wheel to the steering wheel,
slide the platform inwards, and close the vans automatic door. The
user follows a similar procedure, in reverse, to exit the vehicle (Ref
4.1).
In summary, the counterweight system and slider assemblies allow
a paraplegic user to enter the van by completing a pull-up. This solution
provides a faster, quieter, and less expensive alternative for single
operators/independent wheelchair users.

Stowed position
(lifter down)
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Financial Issues
The prototype is less than

A wheelchair user can expect to pay $30,000 to install a

$5,000 a cost significantly wheelchair lift in his van. The goal for this project is a faster and
lower than current hydraulic quieter human-powered design with a manufacturing cost of less than
lifts. $5,000. This goal is achievable because the system eliminates powered
hydraulics and uses readily available aluminum and steel parts. This
design offers variety in cost-efficient wheelchair lifts available to the
paraplegic community, effectively pioneering a new line of products
into the market.

Recommended Improvements
An alternative to the hooked

A future model of the design could include an alternative to the

gripping tool and an hooked gripping tool for platform stowing. The benefit of getting rid of
extendable platform are areas the gripping tool is allowing the operator to use the lift even if they do
to be expanded upon. not have the gripping tool available. This could be done by adding a
small motor to the platform that may be integrated to the motor that is
first used to slide the platform partially outside of the vehicle. Another
improvement is to design an extendable platform that allows the user to
carry additional objects on the platform as well. The design must
accommodate this additional load.

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