CARGO · A new system for creating wheelchair access into family cars through vehicle interior scanning and the design of a six degree of freedom system carrying the wheelchair through a complex 3D path

The SMEs in our consortium are established providers of access products, and wheelchair-into-car solutions. The United States dominates global supply, providing over 49% of access and support devices sold worldwide. Within Europe, they control 29% of the market, with European suppliers only holding 21% of the European market. Global sales of wheelchairs and access products are increasing at 5% pa, whilst the market share of European access companies fell last year by 2% At the same time the EU is imposing legislation and guidelines to improve the disabled access situation on all forms of public transport. As the number of wheelchair users continues to grow each year, our consortium needs to grow new products to take market share back from the US giants and keep pace with the increasing market. To counter this downward trend, our consortium intends to develop the CarGo concept, to permit greater numbers of wheelchair users to gain access to popular cars by developing a wheelchair and accompanying electrically powered lifting system, capable of lifting the user and wheelchair into a vehicle without physical input from the user or helper. Many current products require permanent modification to the vehicle, or outside assistance to store the wheelchair elsewhere in the vehicle during transport. We will develop an innovative electro-mechanical system to carry the user and their wheelchair into the passenger seat space of a car through a complex, optimised path. Our system will allow wheelchair users to travel in a wider range of popular family cars than is currently available, and will impose no permanent modifications to the vehicle, drastically increasing the resale value of the car.