Let's go back to IBOT [power chair] for a minute. The IBOT presents an interesting lens through which to view the social, political economy of disability.
Engineering is often like Psychology in this respect, it address problems that are not fundamentally the result of the means used to ameliorate them, with the result that the solutions are meaningless. I think I can safely say that Capitalism operates much the same way.
But returning to the IBOT, here are the specs:
(http://www.dynopower.freeserve.co.uk/homepages/newchair.htm)
Drive wheels: 30 cm pneumatic Casters: 10 cm solid Maximum speed: 6mph (9.6 km/h)-programmable Per-charge range: 9 to 15miles (15-24 km) Ground clearance: 3 inches (7.6 cm) Turning radius: 0/0 (turns on own axis) Overall length: 104 cm Overall width: 60-76 cm (depending on seat width) Seat Back: Width: 45cms Depth: 45cms Drive: 2 wheel motor drive, 1 rotating motor Battery: Two x 7.2 volt NiCad Weight capacity: 113 kg - 17.75stones Unladen weight: 92 kg (excluding batteries) Battery weight: Two at 10.5 kg each Battery recharge time: 4 hours Kerb climbing height: 15 cm Tilt: 10 degrees Max. stair height: 21 cm Min. stair width: 23 cm Max. stair overhang: 2,5 cm
``This device will be CE marked (93/42/EEC) and comply with national regulations before being marketed or made available in Europe
It is still an experimental device and is expected to be commercially available in 2001, in USA (its real home) and in Scandinavian countries by the end of the year.'' John Willia
I heard this about the IBOT probably three to five years ago, and I have yet to see one roll into the shop for its first real world break down. But I can tell you right off, this chair is bullshit. Just exactly where do you think I can get two 7.2 volt NiCad's? Or let me ask you this. What the fuck runs on 7.2 or 14.4 volts? Trust me on this, the range of 9-15 miles must be un-loaded on a thread mill under clean-room conditions.
Okay, I looked it up and the NiCads are available from Sanyo (7.2vdc, 110mAh, 17x1.26x48mm, 24lbs.) However, I have noticed that Einstein's mass-energy equivalence can be applied to rather dumb things like batteries. The heavier the battery the more energy you can get out of it. My current favorite are two massive 45 lb gel cells for a total of 90 lbs. These get you at most 15 real miles on real streets at about 6mph and they take a solid 8hrs to recharge. They cost about two hundred dollars each and last about a year. So for the IBOT, divide the speed and range by two, multply cost by two. I guess 5 miles at say 3mph, before you're dead in the intersection cross-walk on East 14th where none of the trucks have brakes and everybody speaks Spanish.
Even though the IBOT was invented here, well, it will be marketed in Sweden (gee, why is that Mister Wizard?) Well, the IBOT will be produced only if the wonderful people at IBOT can convince the Swedish government to subsidize them with the same generosity the government extends to Permobile---which is the current Swedish powerchair---and all of that is highly unlikely, Jimmie. Oh.
Permobile is a very similar looking chair with most of the same `features' that has been on the market since the mid-Seventies and is plagued with electronic and electro-mechanical breakdowns that are legend---at least in my world.
Permobile doesn't climb stairs, but otherwise it stands, sits, tilts, and drives around at a screaming 6mph, which is butt slow. Among my favorite features are the incredibly complex design solutions to the most simple parts of the chair, such as the back rest, the arms, the seat. Among my favorite repairs on the Permobile is a little belt that transfers direction of motor power to raise the seat from the base. This cog belt is only available from Permobile, and it is inside a casting that was originally designed for gears, but these turned out to be too noisy in steel and too easily stripped in bronze. In order to replace this belt you have to remove the seat with the support shaft (~50 lbs), turn it upside down, unscrew the cover plate (six 5mm hex-screws). What you see is a ridiculously small pair of cogs with a belt slightly smaller than a wrist band---guaranteed to disintegrate every three months under normal use. By the way, the chair is completely immobilized if the seat is any position except all the way down. So breaking this belt kills the chair. Don't ask why some idiot thought that this tinker-toy gizmo would reliably raise and lower two hundred and fifty plus pounds about once or twice an hour, all day every day. Oh, nevermind.
If a plain screw will do the job, Permobile (and all engineers in general) will use a custom designed one of a kind fastener with threads and a wrench that match nothing else made on planet earth. But, hey it only takes a month to get them from Sweden, costs 37.50 (US) for two, they only come in pairs whether you need two or not, and they are only covered up to 80% of what MediCal will allow, and MediCal allows .50 (US) each (that's eighty cents on $37.50 for those who are mystified by healthcare-math).
The Permobile costs about the same as the IBOT: $25,000 (US). Current Medicare allowables on power chairs run in the neighborhood of 80% of $3,000 or roughly one tenth of the Permobile and IBOT. MediCal has been known to buy them (thanks to the concerted efforts of local Congressional district staffers, several radical lawyers, a couple of doctors, respiratory nurses, rehab therapists, and two years worth of paper arm twisting).
While surfing briefly for a look at an IBOT, I noticed that pictures are difficult to find, which means Kamen (or the J&J marketing group) has created a sort of mystifying presence---its here but it isn't. Does everything, but unfortunately, you'll have to wait for it. Available in stores near you, soon, blah, blah, blah. Typical.
I just finished John Hockenberry's `Moving Violations' which opens with Hockenberry (NBC foreign correspondent, and para) riding a burro into a remote Kurd refugee camp on the Iraqi border in the wake of the Gulf War. He had to leave his push chair to get to this place because there was nothing but a foot path over broken terrain. (It's a good book in places, but uneven)
Hopefully the contrast between Hockenberry's burro and the IBOT illustrates the general idea of why the IBOT is bullshit, and why our whole conception of disability (immediately beyond its physiological parameters) is almost entirely a social construction heavily amplified by the embedding space of the political economy.
Short form, disability isn't an engineering problem.
Chuck Grimes