1999 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Development of New Transfer System for Older People
| Project/Area Number |
10450094
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
Intelligent mechanics/Mechanical systems
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| Research Institution | The University of Tokyo |
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Principal Investigator |
KAMATA Minoru DEPT. OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING, SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING, The University of Tokyo, ASSOCIATE PROFES., 大学院・工学系研究科, 助教授 (20224644)
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| Project Period (FY) |
1998 – 1999
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| Keywords | Older People / Mobility / Electric Vehicle / Town mobility / Low Speed |
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| Research Abstract |
Population rate of older people in Japan is now about 15% and it will get to be more 25% in 2015. Its growing rate is the highest in the world. So we must construct a country where QOL of older maintain high level. In this point, mobility of older people is important problem. If older drivers request is not considered in the in their lifestyle, they will not give up driving a car. We have been studying the mobility of older people, and develop a new type of community vehicle for them through minute research on life style, physical characteristics and driving ability of older people. The vehicle is a small size low speed (30km/h) EV which has characteristics of easy riding and easy driving. We name this uehicle "Silver Vehicle". Silver Vehicle can be operated by only the arms, not by the feets. Speed control that is acceleration and stop is operated by a left arm, and steering control is operated by a right arm. A big entrance space makes older easy people easy to ride on and get off. Appropriate height of seat position makes older people reduce the load of the waist. We did experiments for the evaluation of Silver Vehicle at Takanosu town. The purpose of experiments is the performance evaluation and test run on public road. We got some advantages as follows Silver Vehicle is easy to ride. It is easy to look around Silver Vehicle is easy to drive soon. The silver vehicle is popular among older people, silver vehicle can run at Takanosu town easily, to run the silver vehicle on public road, it is necessary to limit the speed of other traffic, political experiment of promotion of changing from car to silver vehicle will be needed.
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