A study on wheelchair weighted integrated comfort index

Based on ergonomics, fuzzy theory and BP neural network, weighted integrated comfort index WICI is proposed in the paper. WICI is calculated as the weighted sum of integrated comfort indices which gained by the data recorded in different periods of wheelchair assessment experiments. The integrated comfort index ICI is the output of a trained BP neural network .The inputs of the network are the main comfort impact factors of wheelchair. They are cushion peak pressure, cushion contact area, cushion total force, the pressure distribution factor of the cushion, gender, the permeability of the cushion and backrest, the wheelchair's anthropometric measurements, and the rating of wheelchair's appearance quality. The neural network is developed and simulated using data collected from 10 subjects. By the introduction of weighted data of two ICI values, the comfort retention is taken into consideration for the evaluation of the comfort of wheelchairs, which makes WICI more scientific.