Katiebot III Off-Road Wheelchair with Wheeleez Wheels

4-wheel Drive, 4-wheel Steering ultimate off-road wheelchair.

The KatieBot III was created out of necessity in order for my 12 year old daughter Katie to enjoy the beach. Katie is a T8 complete paraplegic and getting around on the beach was tough for everyone. Enter the KatieBot.

The KatieBot is an electric four wheel drive buggy. It uses four MY1016Z 24V, 250 watt electric scooter motors as its power source. The total torque produced is around 115 ft-lbs (thats alot!). Motor control is via my own custom h-bridge motor controller capable of 80 amps @ 30 volts continuous duty. The main power source is two 12 volt 28 AH SLA batteries with a quick disconnect.

Steering is also electric utilizing two 24 volt hi-torque windshield wiper motors and rack-and-pinion gear boxes. As a result the buggy has 4-wheel steering allowing for a tight turning radius. Motor control is also via my own custom motor controller.

My daughter drives the buggy via a joystick adapted from an electric wheelchair. The electronics of the controller were removed and replaced with my own. The joystick unit controls the acceleration/deceleration of the buggy insuring safe stops and starts. The joystick unit also controls the speed of each wheel independently. This insures that during a tight turn the inner wheels turn at a slower rate than the outer greatly decreasing tire skip and wear.

And since my wife won't let me use my daughter as a test pilot (go figure...) the buggy has a 2.4GHZ wireless link with up to a mile range. I can take control of the buggy at any time if i think my daughter is getting into danger and drive her myself.

The buggy breaks down into manageable pieces for easier transport with no tools needed. Assembly or disassembly takes about 5 minutes.

And most importantly the whole buggy works as well as it does due to the Wheeleez tires. With these tires I have amazing traction on sand, snow, mud, lawn, and asphalt. These tires even run on my lawn all day with zero damage! I couldn't be happier. The low operating pressure of the tires even doubles as a suspension for the buggy!

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Katiebot
• electric
• vehicle
• buggy
• offroad
• paraplegic
• disabled
• wheelchair
• wheeleez

[jventerprises]

Thanks! Only took 2 years and 3 revisions!

[jventerprises]

the motor controllers are designed and built by me. unforturnately, i dont sell them...

[jventerprises]

thanks! it was ALOT of work!

Katiebot #1 was a skid steer version. it worked well and was very simple but my daughter didnt like the way it felt. #2 burst into flames! (electronics problems) but #3 has been working very well.

I wonder what #4 will look like....

[1darron1]

Really nice

[TrudgeRC]

Awesome work!!! You should be very proud!

[nstable]

absolutely amazing!

[metallicakyle24]

Dad of the fucking century

[johnnyboy922]

Dad of the year award right here. your gonna turn that girl into quite the offroad enthusiast!!!! my truck doesnt even have four wheel drive let alone four wheel steering. that is a sweet rig and a great build it looks really high quality. this thing is awesome and people whether in a chair or not will be jealous of how freaking cool that is.

[WheelchairThailand]

Yeh for the beach

[TheMudtrack]

Hey if you want to see a real beast check out terrainhopper it is sick it will take almost anything out

[rapinsanta]

It's a deer

[smokinblu1]

This is AMAZING!!! Great job dad :) Blessings on you and your family

[Thebrowntown1234]

@jventerprises are you an engineer or something??