One-armed wheelchair

A new kind of wheelchair has been developed at the University of Cambridge for people who have lost the use of one side of their body. The chair allows users to propel themselves forwards in a straight line using their active hand and to steer themselves using their active foot. Lucy Porter (pictured), a final-year student in the department of engineering, developed the wheelchair with her supervisor, Samuel Lesley. 'Existing hemiplegic wheelchairs require the patient to manipulate two hand rims simultaneously,' Ms Porter said. 'Our prototype allows the person to move forward using only one hand rim and to turn the chair in a tight circle using another rim'.