cobright
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 6, 2013
I've mentioned my pet-project ECV before. Originally to help one of my kids' friends I chopped and modified a Pride Go-Chair. I did things to that chair based on problems I saw, and improvements I thought would add value. And I did some awsome things to that chair. But. I'm not (knock on wood) mobility challenged, and I ended up missing the mark quite a bit.
For example, I put a vacuum chock on this chair that would secure the ECV TO the floor of a bus (or boat, or monorail) without it needing to be strapped. I got the idea listening to people grumble about the delay caused by having to secure 2 ECVs before letting the line board a bus. And then there were a couple of threads about people nervous about using an ECV out of fear that others would resent being delayed or whatever. So that was the first item on the list, make a power chair that can roll onto the bus clamp itself to the floor without needing driver help. I wasn't really hopeful Disney would allow it to be used as the sole means of restraint, but we did get some real world tests done on our 2016 trip and it worked great. I was actually invited back to demonstrate it to Disney's Transportation Operations and Management as a special entry for their Imaginations Design Competition (special, meaning non-competitive because I was not currently a student). They let me ride it on a bus in the parking lot without the ratchet straps while the driver did a hard stop and several very hard turns.
My design was good, and I might make a lot of money off of it someday, but ... it never got used. It won't ever get used until some serious regulation and legal scrutiny allows it to come to market in a mature product. So ... in terms of helping my little gimpy buddy, not much help.
I also spent a lot of time and money coming up with a way to replace 30 pounds worth of lead-acid batteries with an ultra-quiet charging generator. Again, it worked. It lightened the chair by 20 pounds, which made it more agile. Allowed it better acceleration, especially on inclines. Battery life was cut in half but if outdoors, a tiny ultra-quiet engine would recharge the battery. And a month before our trip, the cost of Lithium-Ion batteries, which get me the same battery life as the original heavy batteries but a fraction of the weight, dropped.
I did some other things to this chair as well. A rudimentary collision avoidance system, a crude driverless system that will approach and position itself while you transition to it from another seat (a toilet for example, or the ride seat at Soarin').
At the end of the trip, though, I asked the kiddo for feedback; things he would have liked. He said he would have liked to be able to go down the beach with the rest of the kids, and being able to scoot sideways would have been helpful for sitting at the table in some of the crowded restaurants. Two things I could have done if I'd only looked for this sort of input before the trip instead of after.
That was 6 months ago, our next big trip is in 6 months. I've worked through making a few changes already, but as my goal, specifically, is to make ECV use better within WDW (or other theme parks I suppose), I thought I might reach out for input from a group as dedicated to Disney as I am. So here is a list of ECV/power-chair features I'm working on or considering working on. And please suggest something if you don't see it.
For example, I put a vacuum chock on this chair that would secure the ECV TO the floor of a bus (or boat, or monorail) without it needing to be strapped. I got the idea listening to people grumble about the delay caused by having to secure 2 ECVs before letting the line board a bus. And then there were a couple of threads about people nervous about using an ECV out of fear that others would resent being delayed or whatever. So that was the first item on the list, make a power chair that can roll onto the bus clamp itself to the floor without needing driver help. I wasn't really hopeful Disney would allow it to be used as the sole means of restraint, but we did get some real world tests done on our 2016 trip and it worked great. I was actually invited back to demonstrate it to Disney's Transportation Operations and Management as a special entry for their Imaginations Design Competition (special, meaning non-competitive because I was not currently a student). They let me ride it on a bus in the parking lot without the ratchet straps while the driver did a hard stop and several very hard turns.
My design was good, and I might make a lot of money off of it someday, but ... it never got used. It won't ever get used until some serious regulation and legal scrutiny allows it to come to market in a mature product. So ... in terms of helping my little gimpy buddy, not much help.
I also spent a lot of time and money coming up with a way to replace 30 pounds worth of lead-acid batteries with an ultra-quiet charging generator. Again, it worked. It lightened the chair by 20 pounds, which made it more agile. Allowed it better acceleration, especially on inclines. Battery life was cut in half but if outdoors, a tiny ultra-quiet engine would recharge the battery. And a month before our trip, the cost of Lithium-Ion batteries, which get me the same battery life as the original heavy batteries but a fraction of the weight, dropped.
I did some other things to this chair as well. A rudimentary collision avoidance system, a crude driverless system that will approach and position itself while you transition to it from another seat (a toilet for example, or the ride seat at Soarin').
At the end of the trip, though, I asked the kiddo for feedback; things he would have liked. He said he would have liked to be able to go down the beach with the rest of the kids, and being able to scoot sideways would have been helpful for sitting at the table in some of the crowded restaurants. Two things I could have done if I'd only looked for this sort of input before the trip instead of after.
That was 6 months ago, our next big trip is in 6 months. I've worked through making a few changes already, but as my goal, specifically, is to make ECV use better within WDW (or other theme parks I suppose), I thought I might reach out for input from a group as dedicated to Disney as I am. So here is a list of ECV/power-chair features I'm working on or considering working on. And please suggest something if you don't see it.
- Collision avoidance.
- Detects obstacles and pedestrians and prevents collision.
- I have a system in place that will prevent driving into people and things.
- I kind of want to make it smarter.
- Maybe turn to avoid some collisions instead of just stopping along the lines of the lane detection used in some cars.
- Maybe some sort of alert chatter when it detects a pedestrian will walk into it from the sides or back. Like a virtual clearing of throat to let the other person know, "Hey, I'm here. Don't walk into me."
- Driving on the beach.
- I replaced the swivel-y front wheels with fixed hub wheels that allow for a set of wide tank treads to be put on for off road use.
- This is not like TC Mobility's TankChair. It just gives added traction and prevents wheel sink in soft terrain.
- It takes about 5 minutes to attach the treads.
- I need to add a low gearing to the transmission to let it work better in deep soft beach sand.
- Omni-directional travel.
- Being able to rotate and move forward, backward, to either side or in any direction along the horizontal plane.
- I've purchased a set of what's called "mecanum wheels" that allow for this. I still need to modify the software to make use of them.
- Adjustable rider height and posture.
- I could put the chair on a liftable pylon to allow eye-to-eye level human interaction. Too tippy to really drive it like that but at the speed you would be shuffling through a store or something it would be fine.
- It's possible to straighten the operator's posture a little when seat is lifted. Giving the appearance more like a standing person.
- Cell phone charging? I'm actually schocked this isn't a standard item on mobility scooters.
- Any suggestions?
