Investigation of whole-body vibration of passenger sitting on wheelchair and of passenger sitting on wheelchair loaded on lifter

Welfare vehicles are designed to put a wheelchair and a crew on an automobile. The welfare vehicle has a type of slope or lift. However, such vehicles are expensive. Therefore, we developed a new “lifter” that puts a wheelchair on a car from the back door of a common minivan. We conducted performance testing based on JIS regulations. Results confirmed that it has load and impact characteristics. This study evaluated the vibration that acrew experiences when the “lifter” is operated. We measured the case of flat surface running, slope surface running, step surface running, and lift ascent and descent. We report results of these examinations, which show that the lifter entails no problem other than step surface running.