Robotic Answer to Wheelchairs

Brad Soden says he was inspired to create an all-terrain wheelchair for his
wife, after she lost the use of her legs in a car accident and couldn't enjoy
the outdoors in the way she had before the crash. Though this version of
Tankchair can navigate most landscapes, it still can't handle stairs, and
that's got Soden working on a new version that can. He says he's taken out a
second mortgage to pay for the work but thinks it's more than worth it. 

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Inventor and entrepreneur Dean Kaman, known for the Segway scooter, has his
mind and heart set on creating a wheelchair that can not only move up and
down stairs, but can give the rider the ability to "stand" at eye level.
Using a complex system of gyroscopes and computers, the iBot can balance on
its rear wheels, allowing the user to carry on conversations eye to eye and
still move around with ease. 

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Toyota's futuristic looking iFoot looks like it crept off the pages of a
Japanese robot comic book. In a pod-like chair, the operator sits with her
hands on the controls which reside in the chair's arms. The two legs can
carry a human rider and can lower itself to make it easier to exit. 

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Another Toyota concept, the iUnit, gives the elderly and disabled an
opportunity to move along both faster and in a sleek package. Sitting on four
wheels, the device zips riders along resting back in the vehicle's cab. But
it can also convert to a more traditional-looking wheelchair - if anything
about this device could be called "traditional" - by moving the seat upright. 

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Though the name might not inspire excitement, the idea of what WL-16RII can
do just might. It's essentially a chair with two powerful legs, similar to
the iFoot. The device is still being worked by its inventor, Atsuo Takanishi,
a professor who specializes in mechanical engineering at Waseda University in
Tokyo. It can walk up and down stairs with a rider aboard and could be the
device that carries Japan's elderly when Takanishi brings it to market --
hopefully sometime in the next five years. 

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Links:
TankChair! A Powerchair for off road!

A picture tells a thousand words here!
http://www.powerchair-review.fsnet.co.uk/images/tankchair-grass.jpg

Read the entire article at:
http://www.powerchair-review.fsnet.co.uk/tankchair.htm

Also see the September issue of Popular Science - page 83