The Qolo wheelchair allows its user to stand vertically. This terrific invention was runner up at the prestigious James Dyson Awards for design, beating out many international competitors.

Designed by Japanese students Yosuke Eguch and Yusuke Kiyotani at the University of Tsukuba, the wheelchair user is able to switch between sitting and standing positions by leaning their upper body forwards so that the Qolo can utilise its locomotion function to carry out the change in position. By shifting the weight backwards the user back into a standing position

The two students who have always been fascinated by personal mobility were motivated to design the chair to help those whose mobility was restricted due to unfortunate accidents improve their standard of living.

In order to ensure the Qolo could perform the desired task a series of extensive trails were run to ensure the chair was functional and effective. As any prototype would be expensive to produce, the two students used 3D CAD systems and numerical calculations to improve the structure throughout these trails to help save costs in production. Qolo spent a total of three months being perfected and modified on computers before physical trails could begin.

Once all the details had been figured out, the process of physically creating the chair and testing it with people began. During the trails most participants had full use of their lower limbs so as to avoid causing any unnecessary harm. One participant however suffered from a serious spinal cord injury reducing his mobility to ensure that somebody of the target market was also involved in the trial, this individual went on became a valuable adviser to the Qolo project. The desire to achieve perfection led to many redesigns before the final design was chosen, demonstrating how passionate the designers were in ensuring their invention was fit for purpose. 

Despite the current model’s success Eguch and Kiyotani have already begun on the next generation of Qolo, seeking improvements in ergonomics while attempting to improve comfort and safety for users.  

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