根據內政部統計資料顯示，我國已進入「高齡化社會」，且高齡人口已佔總人口數之9.8％。截至民國94年底我國肢體障礙人口數已達約四十萬人。輪椅的問世為這些行動不便的族群在行的方面，達到獨立自主的需求，傳統雙手驅動式輪椅已被証實須要較多耗氧量、吸呼交換率及較高的心跳率；而電動輪椅在長期使用下，將可能導致使用者心肺功能之降低。基於上述之原因，本研究將針對上肢功能尚可與上肢功能健全之兩大輪椅使用族群，進行使用者之需求探討與分析，藉由系統性之產品開發模式，開發出符合使用者需求之「助動式輪椅」。
本研究經過需求探討、專利分析、概念設計及細部設計等設計流程後已完成「助動式輪椅」之設計與實體原型機之打樣。其主要特點為：（1）有效提升驅動效率，避免累積性傷害的發生；（2）關鍵零組件皆自行研發，能有效降低生產成本；（3）提升手動與助動模式轉換之方便性，以應付各種使用情境之需求；（4）模組化設計，具有零組件少、易拆裝與維修方便等優點。

Since Taiwan has gone into the aged society in recent years, more medical attention on the social welfare, caring and the reconstruction of life function; they induces vigorous development in the welfare medical industry. In statistically, the aged population was 9.8% of total population. The wheelchair had provided the self-service for the walk-inconvenient groups. The traditional wheelchair is been verified that it makes user more oxygen consumption, respiratory exchange rate, and higher heart rate.
Lectures have demonstrated that for long-term use of the powered wheelchair could lead to decrease cardio respiratory function. Therefore, the anticipated results and achievements of this study are to develop a powered-assisted wheelchair to decrease the upper extremity injuries. The major works include the service demands, patent analysis, concept design, and detail design of the powered-assisted wheelchair.
The advantages of the original products are:
1.To enhance driving efficiency significantly, and avoid cumulative injure.
2.Reduce costs of the products by self-design of major components.
3.Enhance the convenience for transforming manual to powered-assisted.
4.Few components and system module design take easy to build and apart.

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