Scalevo – The Stair Climbing Wheelchair

To build an electric wheelchair which is able to climb stairs. Moving on the ground is accomplished with a Segway-like system by balancing on the two main wheels. The stairs are climbed using two rubber tracks mounted on the bottom of the chair.

The idea started as a final-year student project, but it could end up changing the lives of countless disabled people around the world.

Scalevo is like a hybrid of a wheelchair and a Segway. It’s a two-wheeled wheelchair that has the ability to climb stairs. Using gyroscopic technology, similar to a Segway in “balance mode,” the design makes it easy to rotate on the spot and quickly change direction. On flat ground, the wheelchair can move at about 10 kilometers per hour (6.2 mph).

However, the most impressive feature of the Scalevo chair is its ability to ascend and descend stairs with a slope between 17 to 34 degrees. To execute this, it drops two treaded tracks and climbs backwards up the stairs, while keeping the user upright at all times. Although not shown in the demonstration video, it can mount one stair per second. The wheelchair even has the ability to scale spiral staircases.

It was developed by 10 students from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich) and the Zurich University of the Arts. The group is a mixture of engineers and industrial designers under the directorship of Dr. Roland Siegwart and Dr. Roland Haas.

Miro Voellmy, a mechanical engineering student at ETH Zurich, told Reuters, “The great thing is that everything on this wheelchair is automated. If I want to climb the stairs I can just drive up to them, turn around, press one button and all I have to do is control the velocity I want to drive at. The alignment on the stairs, the leveling of the wheelchair driver, is automated and he can control it, he can view the back with a back facing camera, and have a full, safe, driving experience.”