PROTOTYPE ONE | PROTOTYPE TWO | PROTOTYPE THREE
Kangan Roo Power Wheelchair
Like the Australian kangaroo, the Kangan Roo has five points of contact with the ground. A kangaroo's power comes from its center, and a kangaroo uses its tail and front paws for control and balance. Similarly, the Kangan Roo uses a large rear caster to absorb the torque from the motors instead of transmitting it as ‘wheelie” torque to the frame. This makes the Kangan Roo much better at slope climbing than other chairs. The rear caster allows the front frame to “pop a mono” and rest comfortably and stably at approximately a 30º rearward tilt. The Kangan Roo can still be driven around flat areas in this “mono” mode and can be useful as a pressure relief mechanism, for blood pressure reduction, or to create a comfortable reclining chair for recreational purposes.
The third version of the design was built in mid 2006, largely at Kangan Batman TAFE, and as soon as it was finished was shipped to Atlanta, USA, where it was further worked upon with collaborators CATEA of Georgia Tech. Colin worked on the wheelchair and a number of other projects during his month visit to work at CATEA.
You can see more details, including video of this radical sports electric wheelchair on the Prototype 3 webpage.
The second version of the Kangan Roo design was built in mid 2005 and was entered into the Australian ABC TV program "The New Inventors" where in February 2006 the Kangan Roo won the progam Judges Choice and Viewer's Choice. In the Final, it was announced to have won the overall "2006 Viewers Choice Award". As a result of this Colin was flown, thanks to the generosity of the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, to Hong Kong to have a stand at the "Ideas and Innovation Show" at the end of November 2006. During the three days, Colin met a number of potentially interested manufacturers who he is still in discussions with regarding commercialisation.
You can see more details, of this radical sports electric wheelchair on the Prototype 2 webpage.
This was just a proof of concept to see if Colin's idea, that had been developing in his head since 1981, would actually work as envisioned. The first version of the design was built in 2005 and as soon as it was finished was tested on a variety of difficult terrain. Not only was it excellent at travelling over urban terrain, it was able to mount rolled gutters up to 6" high with ease.
This version was built using motors and control unit from a Quickie P300 with large powerful four pole motors 20" wheels and two lead acid gell batteries of 18Ah each (which were still very heavy).
You can see more details of this radical sports electric wheelchair on the Prototype 1 webpage.