Team Members
Gabriela Abadia, Mary Becerra, Hugh Chin, Jackson Ciordia, Katherine De Arazoza, and James J Pennington III
Abstract
The R.E.P.T.I.L.E King safely and continuously supports the user from their wheelchair to a motorized FES elliptical trainer throughout rehabilitative exercise. This design takes advantage of existing structural I-beams to provide overhead mounting support. The harness is designed to comfortably provide torso support for the user; the main source of lifting comes from a cable connected at the user’s back, and fall-safety leashes attached to two front connection points keep the user in a vertical orientation without restricting motion unnaturally while exercising. The user is first lifted out of their wheelchair and onto a mobile bench. Using a dolly-assist, the trainer can easily move the elliptical into place under the bench. The user can then comfortably strap into the trainer boots before being lifted to a full vertical position and the bench being easily moved out of the way. A high-torque low-speed motor provides general weight offset, and a low-torque high-speed motor provides the more sensitively tuned offset to compensate for the oscillatory motion of the user’s center of mass during elliptical training. The addition of a worm gear on the high-torque motor contributes an additional layer of safety by not allowing the cable spool to unravel in the case of motor failure. Lastly, motor operation is controlled by a user-friendly tablet application that is always within reach, mounted to the elliptical.