🦽 Research

Wheelchair & Spinal Cord Injury Biomechanics

Overview

Wheelchair users are usually grouped by injury level, but that tells you little about how someone actually propels their chair day to day. My work develops a bottom-up way of classifying wheelchair users based on their propulsion kinematics, and builds the accessible tools — like an open-platform ergometer — needed to bring exercise assessment to this population outside specialized labs.

Methodology

• Upper-limb kinematics and EMG capture during wheelchair propulsion, analyzed with inverse dynamics.
• Bottom-up (data-driven) classification of propulsion strategies, clustering users by how they move rather than by injury level alone.
• Design and validation of a detachable, open-platform wheelchair roller ergometer with inline shaft torque sensing (custom DAQ: LabJack U3-HV, torque sensor, LabVIEW/MATLAB control), built for accessible exercise assessment.
• Respiratory and biomechanical correlational analysis to set exercise-intensity and fitness standards specific to active individuals with SCI.

Selected Outputs

• A Bottom-Up Classification of Wheelchair Users Based on Propulsion Kinematics beyond Injury Level — IEEE TNSRE, 2025.
• Influence of Time Since Injury and Physical Activity Level on Upper Limb Kinematics and Muscle Activation During Wheelchair Propulsion — BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders, 2025.
• Development and Validation of a Detachable, Open-platform Wheelchair Ergometer with Inline Shaft Torque Sensing for Accessible Exercise Assessment in Persons with Spinal Cord Injury (in preparation).
• Health Enhancement Research through Setting Fitness Standards for Individuals with Spinal Cord Injury — sole Principal Investigator, Ministry of Education, 2024.9–2025.9.
• Wheelchair Propulsion Strategies in Spinal Cord Injury: Beyond Injury Level Classification — KSMR, 2025.
• Analysis of Wheelchair Propulsion Patterns in Wheelchair Users with Various Spinal Cord Injury Levels — KSSB-KSB, 2023. Best Presentation Award