Living with a physical disability isn't easy anywhere in the world, but if you live in a country like the United States, there's certain appurtenances available to you that do make life easier. So if you're in a building, you can take an elevator. If you're crossing the street, you have sidewalk cutouts. And if you have to travel some distance farther than you can do under your own power, there's accessible vehicles, and if you can't afford one of those, there's accessible public transportation. But in the developing world, things are quite different. There's 40 million people who need a wheelchair but don't have one, and the majority of these people live in rural areas, where the only connections to community, to employment, to education, are by traveling long distances on rough terrain often under their own power. And the devices usually available to these people are not made for that context, break down quickly, and are hard to repair. I started looking at wheelchairs in developing countries in 2005, when I spent the summer assessing the state of technology in Tanzania, and I talked to wheelchair users, wheelchair manufacturers, disability groups, and what stood out to me is that there wasn't a device available that was designed for rural areas, that could go fast and efficiently on many types of terrain. So being a mechanical engineer, being at MIT and having lots of resources available to me, I thought I'd try to do something about it. Now when you're talking about trying to travel long distances on rough terrain, I immediately thought of a mountain bike, and a mountain bike's good at doing this because it has a gear train, and you can shift to a low gear if you have to climb a hill or go through mud or sand and you get a lot of torque but a low speed. And if you want to go faster, say on pavement, you can shift to a high gear, and you get less torque, but higher speeds. So the logical evolution here is to just make a wheelchair with mountain bike components, which many people have done. But these are two products available in the U.S. that would be difficult to transfer into developing countries because they're much, much too expensive. And the context I'm talking about is where you need to have a product that is less than 200 dollars. And this ideal product would also be able to go about five kilometers a day so you could get to your job, get to school, and do it on many, many different types of terrain. But when you get home or want to go indoors at your work, it's got to be small enough and maneuverable enough to use inside. And furthermore, if you want it to last a long time out in rural areas, it has to be repairable using the local tools, materials and knowledge in those contexts. So the real crux of the problem here is, how do you make a system that's a simple device but gives you a large mechanical advantage? How do you make a mountain bike for your arms that doesn't have the mountain bike cost and complexity? So as is the case with simple solutions, oftentimes the answer is right in front of your face, and for us it was levers. We use levers all the time, in tools, doorknobs, bicycle parts. And that moment of inspiration, that key invention moment, was when I was sitting in front of my design notebook and I started thinking about somebody grabbing a lever, and if they grab near the end of the lever, they can get an effectively long lever and produce a lot of torque as they push back and forth, and effectively get a low gear. And as they slide their hand down the lever, they can push with a smaller effective lever length, but push through a bigger angle every stroke, which makes a faster rotational speed, and gives you an effective high gear. So what's exciting about this system is that it's really, really mechanically simple, and you could make it using technology that's been around for hundreds of years. So seeing this in practice, this is the Leveraged Freedom Chair that, after a few years of development, we're now going into production with, and this is a full-time wheelchair user -- he's paralyzed -- in Guatemala, and you see he's able to traverse pretty rough terrain. Again, the key innovation of this technology is that when he wants to go fast, he just grabs the levers near the pivots and goes through a big angle every stroke, and as the going gets tougher, he just slides his hands up the levers, creates more torque, and kind of bench-presses his way out of trouble through the rough terrain. Now the big, important point here is that the person is the complex machine in this system. It's the person that's sliding his hands up and down the levers, so the mechanism itself can be very simple and composed of bicycle parts you can get anywhere in the world. Because those bicycle parts are so ubiquitously available, they're super-cheap. They're made by the gazillions in China and India, and we can source them anywhere in the world, build the chair anywhere, and most importantly repair it, even out in a village with a local bicycle mechanic who has local tools, knowledge and parts available. Now, when you want to use the LFC indoors, all you have to do is pull the levers out of the drivetrain, stow them in the frame, and it converts into a normal wheelchair that you can use just like any other normal wheelchair, and we sized it like a normal wheelchair, so it's narrow enough to fit through a standard doorway, it's low enough to fit under a table, and it's small and maneuverable enough to fit in a bathroom and this is important so the user can get up close to a toilet, and be able to transfer off just like he could in a normal wheelchair. Now, there's three important points that I want to stress that I think really hit home in this project. The first is that this product works well because we were effectively able to combine rigorous engineering science and analysis with user-centered design focused on the social and usage and economic factors important to wheelchair users in the developing countries. So I'm an academic at MIT, and I'm a mechanical engineer, so I can do things like look at the type of terrain you want to travel on, and figure out how much resistance it should impose, look at the parts we have available and mix and match them to figure out what sort of gear trains we can use, and then look at the power and force you can get out of your upper body to analyze how fast you should be able to go in this chair as you put your arms up and down the levers. So as a wet-behind-the-ears student, excited, our team made a prototype, brought that prototype to Tanzania, Kenya and Vietnam in 2008, and found it was terrible because we didn't get enough input from users. So because we tested it with wheelchair users, with wheelchair manufacturers, we got that feedback from them, not just articulating their problems, but articulating their solutions, and worked together to go back to the drawing board and make a new design, which we brought back to East Africa in '09 that worked a lot better than a normal wheelchair on rough terrain, but it still didn't work well indoors because it was too big, it was heavy, it was hard to move around, so again with that user feedback, we went back to the drawing board, came up with a better design, 20 pounds lighter, as narrow as a regular wheelchair, tested that in a field trial in Guatemala, and that advanced the product to the point where we have now that it's going into production. Now also being engineering scientists, we were able to quantify the performance benefits of the Leveraged Freedom Chair, so here are some shots of our trial in Guatemala where we tested the LFC on village terrain, and tested people's biomechanical outputs, their oxygen consumption, how fast they go, how much power they're putting out, both in their regular wheelchairs and using the LFC, and we found that the LFC is about 80 percent faster going on these terrains than a normal wheelchair. It's also about 40 percent more efficient than a regular wheelchair, and because of the mechanical advantage you get from the levers, you can produce 50 percent higher torque and really muscle your way through the really, really rough terrain. Now the second lesson that we learned in this is that the constraints on this design really push the innovation, because we had to hit such a low price point, because we had to make a device that could travel on many, many types of terrain but still be usable indoors, and be simple enough to repair, we ended up with a fundamentally new product, a new product that is an innovation in a space that really hasn't changed in a hundred years. And these are all merits that are not just good in the developing world. Why not in countries like the U.S. too? So we teamed up with Continuum, a local product design firm here in Boston to make the high-end version, the developed world version, that we'll probably sell primarily in the U.S. and Europe, but to higher-income buyers. And the final point I want to make is that I think this project worked well because we engaged all the stakeholders that buy into this project and are important to consider in bringing the technology from inception of an idea through innovation, validation, commercialization and dissemination, and that cycle has to start and end with end users. These are the people that define the requirements of the technology, and these are the people that have to give the thumbs-up at the end, and say, "Yeah, it actually works. It meets our needs." So people like me in the academic space, we can do things like innovate and analyze and test, create data and make bench-level prototypes, but how do you get that bench-level prototype to commercialization? So we need gap-fillers like Continuum that can work on commercializing, and we started a whole NGO to bring our chair to market -- Global Research Innovation Technology -- and then we also teamed up with a big manufacturer in India, Pinnacle Industries, that's tooled up now to make 500 chairs a month and will make the first batch of 200 next month, which will be delivered in India. And then finally, to get this out to the people in scale, we teamed up with the largest disability organization in the world, Jaipur Foot. Now what's powerful about this model is when you bring together all these stakeholders that represent each link in the chain from inception of an idea all the way to implementation in the field, that's where the magic happens. That's where you can take a guy like me, an academic, but analyze and test and create a new technology and quantitatively determine how much better the performance is. You can connect with stakeholders like the manufacturers and talk with them face-to-face and leverage their local knowledge of manufacturing practices and their clients and combine that knowledge with our engineering knowledge to create something greater than either of us could have done alone. And then you can also engage the end user in the design process, and not just ask him what he needs, but ask him how he thinks it can be achieved. And this picture was taken in India in our last field trial, where we had a 90-percent adoption rate where people switched to using our Leveraged Freedom Chair over their normal wheelchair, and this picture specifically is of Ashok, and Ashok had a spinal injury when he fell out of a tree, and he had been working at a tailor, but once he was injured he wasn't able to transport himself from his house over a kilometer to his shop in his normal wheelchair. The road was too rough. But the day after he got an LFC, he hopped in it, rode that kilometer, opened up his shop and soon after landed a contract to make school uniforms and started making money, started providing for his family again. Ashok: You also encouraged me to work. I rested for a day at home. The next day I went to my shop. Now everything is back to normal. Amos Winter: And thank you very much for having me today. (Applause)
对残疾人而言,在世界上任何一个地方 生活都很不容易 但如果他们生活在像美国这样的国家 至少可以得到很多切实的让生活更便利的辅助 比如在建筑物里,你可以乘电梯 过马路时,你可以走专门的人行道 如果你想要去很远的地方 你可以坐现成的车 即使你付不起费用 你依然可以选择公共交通 然而在发展中国家,情况就非常不同 有4千万人急需轮椅,却得不到 这些人大多数住在乡村 他们只能在崎岖的路上 通过自己的努力行走很长的距离 才有机会进入社区,获得工作,接受教育 更糟糕的是,这些人的代步工具并不合适当地的环境 它们容易损坏 而且难以修复 从2005年起,我开始关注了发展中国家的轮椅问题 我花了一个夏天在坦桑尼亚考察科技状况 我与轮椅使用者,轮椅制造商,残疾人团体进行了交谈 结果我发现 现有的工具 都不是专门农村地区设计的 它不能在多种地形上高速高效地行进 因此,作为一个机械工程师 在麻省理工我拥有许多可用的资源 我想我要尝试做点什么 当你们谈到在崎岖的路上 长距离行进时 我立刻想到了山地自行车 山地自行车很擅长做这件事 因为它有变速器 你可以调到低档来爬坡 或者穿越泥浆和沙地 力矩变长,但是速度很慢 如果你想骑得快一点,比如在人行道上 你可以调到高档 力矩变短,但速度加快 顺着这个逻辑 只需要在轮椅上加装山地车的零件 这件事很多人都做过 但美国市场上的两款产品 想进入发展中国家都很困难 因为他们太贵了,太贵了 我所说的背景是 你需要的是一个低于200美元的产品 而且这个理想的产品还能够每天行驶五公里左右 这样你才能去上班,上学 以及在许多许多不同地形上使用它 但当你到家了或者工作时需要进入室内 它足够小足够灵巧,从而能在室内使用 此外,如果你想在乡村长时间使用它 那它必须是可修理的 可以使用当地的工具,材料和知识来修理塔 所以问题的关键在于 怎么制造一个系统 既简单,又能带来很大的好处 怎样为自己的双臂制造一辆山地车 却比真正的山地车便宜而且简单呢 答案常常就在眼前 那就是杠杆 我们一直在利用杠杆,工具,门把手,自行车部件 灵感和关键发明来临的那一刻 我正坐在我的设计手册前 我设想有人在拉一根杠杆 如果他们在靠近杠杆末端的地方拉 他们就可以获得一个有效的长杠杆 从而在来回推动时产生一个长力矩 以及一个低速齿轮 当他们把手顺着杠杆滑下去 他们推的杠杆长度变短 但是每次推动的角度更大 这产生一个更高的旋转速度和一个高速齿轮 这个系统令人兴奋之处在于 它的机械结构真的,真的非常简单 你可以用通行了几百年的技术 来制造它 看实际运行状况 这就是杠杆化自由轮椅 经过几年的研究实验后 我们即将要生产的新一代轮椅 这是一位需要一直使用轮椅的危地马拉人, 他已经瘫痪了 你可以看到他能够穿越相当崎岖的路面 这项科技的核心创新点在于 当他想走的快点,他可以握住靠近抽心的位置作大角度的推动 当进入较糟的路面,他只需要握住握杠的上部 就可以推动较大的扭力 让他自己推离不平地地形 这种设计最大的重点在于 操作者是整个系统中的复杂机器 使用者移动他自己的手来精密控制轮椅 因此机制本身很简单 而自行车的零件在世界任何一个地方都可以得到 因为自行车零件 非常常见,所以他们的造价很便宜 中国和印度的许许多多的工人都可以制造这些零件 我们可以在世界上任何地方买到需要的零件 在任何地方制造轮椅,并且最重要的是 我们可以在任何地方修理它们。这一点,即使是居住在乡村里 只有当地的工具,知识和零件的自行车修理师也可以办到 当你需要在室内使用时杠杆化自由轮椅时 你只要把杠杆从传动系统中拔出来 放在支架内,它就变成了普通轮椅 于是你就可以把它当做普通轮椅来使用 我们按照普通轮椅的尺寸来打造它 它的宽足以通过标准的走廊 它的高足以从桌子底下通过 它小而灵巧,足以在浴室中使用 这重要性在于让使用者可以靠近马桶 从轮椅坐过去 就像他,在一般轮椅也能做到的 我想强调三点 这三点触及到了这个项目的精髓 第一点是项目成功的原因在于 我们有效地把严谨的工程科学 与以用户为中心的设计分析结合起来 聚焦于社会,利用和经济因素 这对发展中国家的轮椅使用者非常重要 我是麻省理工学院的学者,我也是一个机械工程师 我可以通过观察你所行进的路面的类型 计算出它会产生多大的阻力 通过了解我们已有的零件,混合并拼凑它们 想出我们可以使用哪一种变速器 通过考虑上肢可以产生的能量和力气 分析出当你把手臂在杠杆上面上下移动时 能以多快的速度行进 根据这些,我的菜鸟学生们很兴奋地 制造了一个样品 在2008年把这个初样带到了坦桑尼亚,肯尼亚和越南 发现它非常糟糕 因为我们没有得到足够的使用者的反馈 所以我们与轮椅使用者,轮椅制造商 一起进行测试,收集他们的建议 不仅仅是采集他们的问题,而是采集了他们认为好的解决方法 然后我们回来重新画了设计图 09年,我的团队把经过修改的样品带到了东非 新一代样品在崎岖路面上的行进效果比普通轮椅要好得多 但在室内行进效果仍然不好 因为它太大,太重,难以转动 得到了使用者的回馈,我们再次回到了试图板上 想出了一个更好的设计。新设计比之前轻了20磅 跟常规轮椅一样窄。我们在危地马拉进行了一次路面测试 这项产品 进展到了现在我们能开始量产的状态 同时作为工程科学家 我们可以量化杠杆化自由轮椅的表现 这是几张我们在瓜地马拉做试验的照片 我们在农村里测试杠杆是轮椅 也测量人们的生物力学产出 氧气消耗量,进行速度 及他们推动轮椅所消耗的力量 与一般轮椅以及杠杆式轮椅比较 我们发现在这些环境里 杠杆式轮椅比起一般轮椅快了百分之八十 比起一般的轮椅,也多了百分之四十的效率 也由于杠杆的机械特性 你可以多产生百分之五十的扭力 让你可以走过非常崎岖的道路 第二,我们学到了 设计上的限制也推动了创新 因为我们必须降低价格 因为我们要做出一样可以适应很多地形 能在室内使用 设计简单易于修理的轮椅 我们最后发明了全新的产品 一样新产品 过去一百从未出现的创新 这些优点不只能套用在开发中国家 也可以带到像美国这样的国家 我们与Continuum合作 这是一家在波士顿当地的制造商 打造了一款高阶版本 我们会在美国及欧洲 贩卖给高收入的顾客 最后我想说的 这项计划能成功 是因为我们结合了所有参与计划的人 将这项科技从概念 到创新,验证,商用,推广 这链结于使用者紧密相扣 他们有对这项科技的需求 最终他们举起了大拇指称赞 而且说“这很好用,刚好符合我们的需求” 像我一样在学术界的人 我们可以做一些像创新,分析,测试 建立资料,设计实验阶段的原型机种 但你要如何将原型机种带入到商业产品 我们需要像Continuum可以帮助我们跨越屏障的公司 我们成立了一个非政府组织"Global Research Innovation Technology" 来将我们的轮椅带到市场上 并于印度的大型制造商 Pinnacle Industries 合作 每个月制造500台轮椅 下个月 第一批将在在印度推出 最终,为了把它大量地提供给人们 我们与全球最大的身障组织 Jaipur Foot 一同合作 这个模式的好处 是当你结合所有 参与这个链结的人 从概念的发想 到现实中的实作 神奇的事发生了 你可以找到一个像我一样 做分析,测试,设计的人 并且量化它的性能有多好 同时也连结赚钱的制造商 跟他们面对面 整合他们的制造程序,客户 在与我们的工程知识结合 做出一个比我们各自单独能做的还要好的东西 你也必须拉进使用者一起参与设计过程 不只是问他们所需要的 也问他们认为什么是行得通的 这是我们最后一次在印度做实验时拍的照片 有九成的人从一般轮椅 更换到使用我们的杠杆式轮椅 特别是Ashok Ashok 从树中掉下来后脊柱损伤瘫痪 以前他是个裁缝师,自从受伤后 他没办法坐在一般轮椅上 从一公里远的家里移动到市集 因为路程太颠簸了 然而,拿到杠杆式轮椅的同一天 他就走过那一公里,开始营业了 并且很快地拿到了学校制服的合约 开始赚钱,再次养家活口 Ashok: 你鼓励我去工作 我在家休息一天后 隔天我就去工作 现在一切都恢复正常了 Amos Winter: 感谢你们来听我演讲