Development of easy-to-assemble cardboard beds: Post-disaster assistive device for the elderly and the disabled person. Project Professor Toshiaki Tanaka

Project Professor Toshiaki Tanaka (human information engineering) has developed a simple, easy-to-assemble cardboard bed that makes it easier for elderly to stand up and lie down. Project Professor Tanaka says, ""I hope it can be useful at evacuation centers following disasters.""

The Tanaka Laboratory team surveyed elderly in Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima Prefectures right after the March 2011 disaster, and discovered that a simple bed and mobility and transfer assistive devices (cane, knee and trunk braces) were needed for the elderly and people with disabilities in evacuation centers. The team interviewed these elderly people and asked them what they needed following a disaster, and 70 percent mentioned beds. Project Professor Tanaka thought, ""Simple beds are necessary in temporary housing or right after a disaster,"" so he worked on the development.

The cardboard bed he designed is 2 meters long and one meter wide. It is made up of 8 boxes contained in a frame. In order to make it easier for the elderly to move from a wheelchair to the bed (vice versa), the height of the bed was adjusted to the wheelchair, and a handrail was provided on the bed so that the user can get up from it more easily. He also devised a cardboard chair that helps when sitting down on and getting up out of the bed.

The team analyzed muscular activities of the legs and the trunk when using this new type of cardboard bed as well as the old type and found that the burden on the legs and the trunk when standing up was reduced by 20 percent. In addition, when using the handles attached to the cardboard, the amount of leg strength needed to stand up is reduced by 10 percent. This makes it relatively easy for the elderly with low back and knee pain to stand up and sit down.

Project Professor Tanaka is going to have the residents of Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima Prefectures offer and try out these beds before this year's launch of the commercialization type.

Co-developed by: Abili Co., Ltd. (http://www.abili.co.jp/index.html)
Cooperated by: Industrial Research Institute, Industrial Technology Research Department, Hokkaido Research Organization



Cardboard bed developed by Project Professor Toshiaki Tanaka