Development of amphibious wheelchairs for universal beaches

Purpose We propose amphibious wheelchairs of two kinds for wheelchair users to enjoy at beaches. Design/methodology/approach Conventional wheelchairs cannot traverse beach areas because their front casters and rear wheels quickly sink into the sand. For amphibious use, we propose wheelchairs modified using conventional, inexpensive materials. Findings Experimentally obtained results demonstrate that these amphibious wheelchairs can readily traverse beaches. Research limitations/implications We expect to improve the wheelchairs with the view of security and usability. For future work, we plan to make the wheelchairs available for use at Oarai Sun Beach. Practical implications Maintaining the lifting position was easy. Experimentally obtained results demonstrated that the proposed wheelchairs can travel on beaches with light force. They have good maintainability because plastic bearings were used. Originality/value Instead of exchanging the front casters for balloon wheels similar to those of conventional beach wheelchairs, we chose a lower-cost method of lifting the front casters. On the first prototype, the front casters were lifted by lowering the handgrips. This prototype had a horizontal position mechanism to maintain the user's balance. The second prototype, called UNICLE, had thills resembling those of a rickshaw. For the rear wheels, we added another wheel between each existing wheel and the hand rim. Moreover, we attached polyethylene foam pieces on the wheel to increase the wheel-ground contact area.