Increasing Mobility Through Advanced Power Sources for Assisted Mobility Devices

The project develops a high-capacity hydrogen storage system for a fuel cell/battery hybrid power supply for electric wheelchairs and scooters. The light-weight, rugged, simple to recharge, and environmentally friendly system is fabricated to deliver over 1.2kW of peakpower and optimize for an average power use of 430 W, weigh 20 kg, and deliver 12,000 Watt hours of energy, equivalent to over 28 hours of continuous run-time without recharging. The resulting power supply permits a powered mobility aide to operate under typical usage for up to two weeks between recharging. This equates to a ten-fold increase in range for high power systems such as TEFTEC's OmegaTrac wheelchair. Lightweight, compact, low power versions of the system have commercial application in pushrim activated power-assisted wheelcharirs. Initial production expects to focus on systems that can be retrofitted to existing wheelchairs and scooters.