Design and Development of Movable Furniture

Existing stretchers, wheelchairs or trolleys are designed to move only on plane surface or ramp, and lifts are used to transfer a person or heavy items between the floors. However, many places do not have the facilities and a furniture is required to transfer easily using only stairs. In this project, an attempt is made to modify the existing furniture to meet the needs. Here, proposed concept is to add a machine to the conventional stretcher, such that it enables stretcher to climb stairs when force is applied manually. Aim is to develop smooth and stable mechanism to climb stairs as well as move on a plane surface. The developed model is an add-on to conventional stretcher which consists stair climbing wheels and a mechanism which engages these wheels before climbing and disengages them for motion on a plane surface. One of the main experiment carried out in this project is the calculation of jerks using a sensor and graph is plotted. In the future, the project can be extended to make a life-size model using stronger and light weight materials. Automatic wheelchairs can also be developed by adding motors to the system and controlling them.