AUGUST 21, 2008--For people with physical disabilities, everyday tasks, such as hopping in a car, are often challenging feats. Freedom Sciences (Philadelphia, PA, USA; www.freedomsciences.com) has developed the Automated Transport and Retrieval System (ATRS), a wheelchair system that can be equipped in mid- and full-size vehicles, to alleviate some of these hardships.

The ATRS is designed so that the driver or passenger seat is lowered from the vehicle at the same time a wheelchair storage unit is unloaded from the rear of the vehicle. Once positioned in the seat, the user operates a remote control to guide the wheelchair to the back of the vehicle. As the wheelchair reaches the vehicle's storage unit, the remote is no longer needed and a non-contact Laser Measurement System (LMS) from SICK (Minneapolis, MN, USA; www.sickusa.com) takes over the navigation. With the LMS291 mounted on the docking station, the wheelchair can be automatically situated on the dock and precisely loaded into the vehicle.

For more information and a video about the wheelchair, visit www.freedomsciences.com. For more information on the SICK LMS, visit www.sickusa.com.

Thu Aug 21 08:51:00 CDT 2008