A revolutionary new custom wheelchair wheel that can climb STAIRS could soon hit the market.
The Scewo chair uses rubber tracks to navigate staircases, and the tracks’ rigid base means the chair is stable even on spiral stair cases.
The designers behind the chair believe that they will have a version that can be mass marketed by the end of 2018.
The project was started by five masters students from two universities – the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and Zurich University of the Arts.
The interdisciplinary team was part of a group of ten bachelors students who built a prototype version of the chair – called Scalevo.
After completing their studies, the entrepreneurial engineers decided to spend their spare time working on a demonstration version.
Among them are the two fearless test drivers – Josep and Basil – who are both paraplegic and can give the rest of the team direct feedback about the chair.
They have named the new chair Scewo and are now hoping to create a finished product which can be mass produced.
The group says that while technology has progressed in leaps and bounds, the basic wheelchair design has remained the same.
Their aim is to use new the latest in electronics and aesthetic design to develop a wheelchair from scratch, more suited to life in the 21st century.
Read more: A wheelchair that can climb STAIRS could hit the market by the end of next year