Design review and enhancement of wheelchair for para table tennis

• Main Author: Yap, Wen Bin
• Other Authors: Li King Ho Holden
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2016
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/67119
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

The conventional wheelchair design does not further provide the athletes in any form of support or comfort in the game of para table tennis. With the current advancement of technology, a design review should be done on the wheelchair design to further improve on the playing experience for the para athletes. The aim of this project is to investigate the problems of the equipment that are faced by two athletes and to design a test to define an athlete’s performance. Range of reach, angle of upper body tipping and switch time from backhand stroke to forehand stroke are some of the important factor to improve performance. The project only investigate one class 1 and one class 2 para table tennis athletes. From the initial test, the average range of reach area for class 1 and class 2 athlete were 0.60m^2 and 0.62m^2. After the equipment underwent design process and evaluation, the final average range of reach area for class 1 and class 2 athlete were 0.79m^2 and 1.20m^2. Feedbacks on improvement in playing experience were received after the new equipment have been introduce to both athletes. The increase of reach area of 9.48% and 27.92% from the two athletes show that the new equipment is successful in providing better performance. The percentage calculated is based on half the area of the tennis table which is the area of the athlete’s playing field. Results from this project also serve as an important feedback for training, equipment design and game strategy.