Wheelchair users often face architectural barriers such as curbs, limiting their accessibility, mobility, and participation in their communities. The mobility enhancement robotic (MEBot) wheelchair was developed to navigate over such architectural barriers. Its application allows wheelchair users to negotiate curbs automatically while the user remains in control. The application was optimized from a manual to a semiautomated process based on wheelchair users' feedback. The optimized application was evaluated by experienced wheelchair users who navigated over curbs of different heights. Participants evaluated MEBot in terms of effectiveness, workload demand, and usability. Ten participants successfully ascended and descended curbs of different heights at an average completion time of 55.7 ± 19.5 and 30.3 ± 9.1 s, respectively. MEBot maintained stability during the process, while participants reported low levels of effort, frustration, and overall cognitive demand to operate MEBot. Furthermore, participants were satisfied with the ease of learning and using the MEBot curb negotiation application to overcome the curbs but suggested less wheel adjustment for comfort and a faster pace to overcome curbs during real-world conditions.

The ability to perform activities of daily living and mobility-related activities of daily living are substantial indicators of one's ability to live at home and to participate in one's community. Technologies to assist with mobility and manipulation are among the most important tools that clinicians can provide to people with disabilities to promote independence and community participation. For people with severe disabilities involving both the upper and lower extremities, there are few systems that provide practical and coordinated assistance with mobility and manipulation tasks. The personal mobility and manipulation appliance (PerMMA) was created in response to goals set forth by a team of clinicians and people with disabilities.

In this paper, we investigate the enhanced ability of manipulation with the newly developed Personal Mobility and Manipulation Appliance (PerMMA). PerMMA is a new assistive device that integrates bimanual manipulation with smart mobility to assist people with severe physical disabilities and enhance their quality of lives. Different from the fixed mounting method used in most existing systems, a novel mounting system was designed on PerMMA to enhance its capability of manipulation assistance. With a workspace characterized by essential daily living tasks, we evaluated PerMMA's performance of manipulation using a comparative study between PerMMA and classic design, such as single arm and fixed mounting, used in most existing systems. Simulation results demonstrate significant improvements with PerMMA in both of its reachability and manipulability.