Rugby wheelchairs are typically customized and designed based primarily on the athlete’s ‘body measurements’. To date, relationships between anthropometric data and performance characteristics for individual athletes have not been addressed in an optimal manner in wheelchair design. This paper addresses the application of the Quality Function Deployment (QFD) method for rugby wheelchairs design. Discussion of the QFD analysis results will identify relevant performance parameters to be used as a reference in the customization of ‘low, mid and high pointer’ wheelchairs as well as the specific design features that are required to be parameterised in order to achieve the desired performance output for each category of athletes. The paper will present the findings of the QFD analysis and the design customisation strategies arising

This paper addresses the methods used for the design and fabrication of a capacitance based wearable pressure sensor fabricated using neoprene and (SAC) plated Nylon Fabric. The experimental set up for the pressure sensor is comprised of a shielded grid of sensing modules, a 555 timer based transduction circuitry, and an Arduino board measuring the frequency of signal to a corresponding pressure. The fundamental design parameters addressed during the development of the pressure sensor presented in this paper are based on size, simplicity, cost, adaptability, and scalability. The design approach adopted in this paper results in a sensor module that is less obtrusive, has a thinner and flexible profile, and its sensitivity is easily scalable for ‘smart’ product applications across industries associated to sports performance, ergonomics, rehabilitation, etc

The Illinois agility test is a timed task suitable for wheelchair sports with multidirectional movements and it is commonly used to evaluate the agility performance of athletes. In addition to test times, tangential velocities and turning radii are parameters of high importance in the assessment of agility performance. The main objective of this study is to develop a method that allows the evaluation of the tangential velocity and turning radius that are achieved during the Illinois agility test, which is usually used for training wheelchair rugby athletes. A group of nine Paralympic wheelchair rugby athletes performed three trials of the Illinois agility test using their own custom made chairs. The wheelchairs were instrumented with a 6 DOF (degrees of freedom) sensor (accelerometer/gyrometer). Linear accelerations, angular velocities and test times were recorded during the test. The investigation of obtained performance enabled identification of instantaneous radii and tangential velocities of the turning chair for each of the 11 turns of the Illinois test. To evaluate an athlete's performance, hypotheses based on optimisation strategy of performance for the test's turning circuit were considered as follows: (1) athletes produce a longer rc in turns 3, 4, 5, 7, 8 and 9; (2) athletes produce a shorter rc (turning radius) in turns 2, 6 and 10; and (3) athletes produce a longer rc in turns 1 and 11. According to the performance parameters mentioned above, four performance quadrants could be identified for different turn radii and velocities. The performance assessment of athletes presented here showed no significant difference in turning radius between expected longer and shorter radius turns in individual athletes. It was concluded that using turning radius as a performance parameter is not appropriate. Velocity in the expected shorter radii proved to be generally larger than the one in the expected longer radii with significant difference in four of the nine athletes. Significant difference was found between radii of group A (low pointer athletes) and group B (mid pointer athletes), and larger radii were observed in group A (low pointer athletes). The differences in velocities between groups A and C, and between B and C were significant (P ≤ 0.001 each). The method developed and proposed proved to be valid for assisting performance assessment of wheelchair sports athletes using the Illinois agility test for training purposes. The study concludes that, in addition to test times, the use of instrumented chairs, a higher sample size and the application of the method presented are recommended for Illinois agility test assessment.

Research is being conducted on the use of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) for therapeutic effects, and also on the mechanisms through which such therapeutic effects are mediated. A bottleneck in the progress of the research has been the large size of the existing tDCS systems which prevents subjects from performing their daily activities. To help research into the principles, mechanisms, and benefits of tDCS, reduction of size and weight, improvement in simplicity and user friendliness, portability, and programmability of tDCS systems are vital. This paper presents a design for a low-cost, light-weight, programmable, and portable tDCS device. The device is head-mountable and can be concealed in a hat and worn on the head by the subject while receiving the stimulation. The strength of the direct current stimulation can be selected through a simple user interface. The device is constructed and its performance evaluated through bench and in vivo tests. The tests validated the operation of the device in inducing neuromodulatory changes in primary motor cortex, M1, through measuring excitability of dominant M1 of resting right first dorsal interosseus muscle by transcranial magnetic stimulation induced motor evoked potentials. It was observed that the tDCS device induced comparable neuromodulatory effects in M1 as the existing bulky tDCS systems.

Surfboard manufacturing has begun to utilise Expanded Polystyrene as a core material; however, surf literature relatively ignores this material. This manuscript investigates the mechanical behaviour of Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) sandwich composites. An epoxy resin matrix was used to manufacture ten sandwich-structured composite panels with varying fabric reinforcements (carbon fibre, glass fibre, PET) and two foam densities. The flexural, shear, fracture, and tensile properties were subsequently compared. Under common flexural loading, all composites failed via compression of the core, which is known in surfing terms as creasing. However, crack propagation tests indicated a sudden brittle failure in the E-glass and carbon fibre facings and progressive plastic deformation for the recycled polyethylene terephthalate facings. Testing showed that higher foam density increased the flex and fracture mechanical properties of composites. Overall, the plain weave carbon fibre presented the highest strength composite facing, while the single layer of E-glass was the lowest strength composite. Interestingly, the double-bias weave carbon fibre with a lower-density foam core presented similar stiffness behaviour to standard E-glass surfboard materials. The double-biased carbon also improved the flexural strength (+17%), material toughness (+107%), and fracture toughness (+156%) of the composite compared to E-glass. These findings indicate surfboard manufacturers can utilise this carbon weave pattern to produce surfboards with equal flex behaviour, lower weight and improved resistance to damage in regular loading.