{"id":3436,"date":"2026-08-07T12:06:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T10:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pk.edu.pl\/?p=3436"},"modified":"2026-10-27T15:01:30","modified_gmt":"2026-10-27T14:01:30","slug":"three-wheeled-scooter-for-people-with-disabilities-breaks-down-barriers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pk.edu.pl\/en\/three-wheeled-scooter-for-people-with-disabilities-breaks-down-barriers\/","title":{"rendered":"Three-wheeled Scooter for People With Disabilities Breaks Down Barriers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-7387b849 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:50%\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:50%\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-pk-typografia-lead pk-lead\"><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<nav class=\"pkng-toc\" aria-label=\"Contents\"><p class=\"pkng-toc__title\">Contents<\/p><ul class=\"pkng-toc__list\"><li class=\"pkng-toc__item pkng-toc__item--h3\"><a href=\"#h-stable-and-safe-engineering-design-for-everyday-needs\"><span class=\"pkng-toc__nr\">1.<\/span> Stable and safe engineering design for everyday needs<\/a><\/li><li class=\"pkng-toc__item pkng-toc__item--h3\"><a href=\"#h-long-tradition-of-vehicles-for-people-with-disabilities-at-pk-krakow-university-of-technology\"><span class=\"pkng-toc__nr\">2.<\/span> Long tradition of&nbsp;vehicles for people with disabilities at&nbsp;PK&nbsp;Krakow University of&nbsp;Technology<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-7387b849 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:50%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/pk.edu.pl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/images_news_2026_8_PolitechnikaKrakowskaTrojkolowiec1.jpg_bf7b0823-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"Three wheeled scooter at PK KUT university - photo showing the test of the scooter at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering\" class=\"wp-image-3437\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pk.edu.pl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/images_news_2026_8_PolitechnikaKrakowskaTrojkolowiec1.jpg_bf7b0823-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/pk.edu.pl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/images_news_2026_8_PolitechnikaKrakowskaTrojkolowiec1.jpg_bf7b0823-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/pk.edu.pl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/images_news_2026_8_PolitechnikaKrakowskaTrojkolowiec1.jpg_bf7b0823-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/pk.edu.pl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/images_news_2026_8_PolitechnikaKrakowskaTrojkolowiec1.jpg_bf7b0823-1536x865.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/pk.edu.pl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/images_news_2026_8_PolitechnikaKrakowskaTrojkolowiec1.jpg_bf7b0823-2048x1153.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:50%\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-pk-typografia-lead pk-lead\"><strong><strong>PK&nbsp;Krakow University of&nbsp;Technology student Kamil Gu\u015btak has designed a&nbsp;unique electric scooter. Thanks to&nbsp;its stable, three-wheeled construction, it&nbsp;can facilitate daily mobility for people with motor disabilities and balance disorders. The design was created at&nbsp;the Faculty of&nbsp;Mechanical Engineering at&nbsp;PK&nbsp;KUT as&nbsp;part of&nbsp;a&nbsp;master&#8217;s&nbsp;thesis in&nbsp;automotive engineering. It&nbsp;is&nbsp;a&nbsp;response to&nbsp;the needs of&nbsp;a&nbsp;specific user, Sara Wisniewski, a&nbsp;student of&nbsp;automation and robotics at&nbsp;CUT, who lives with cerebral palsy. The prototype has already undergone numerous successful tests with the user&#8217;s&nbsp;participation.<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2013 <em>We&nbsp;wanted to&nbsp;create a&nbsp;design that responds to&nbsp;the real needs of&nbsp;the user, not just replicates existing solutions. This is&nbsp;a&nbsp;highly practical project, based on&nbsp;experience and consultations. Within one semester, we&nbsp;managed to&nbsp;develop several concepts, create models and prototypes that allowed us&nbsp;to&nbsp;test individual solutions. Due to&nbsp;the need for individualization and maintaining the highest safety standards, tests with user participation were conducted multiple times<\/em> \u2013 emphasizes Kamil Gu\u015btak, the vehicle&#8217;s&nbsp;creator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Stable and safe engineering design for everyday needs<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The vehicle&#8217;s&nbsp;three-wheeled configuration ensures greater handling stability, and its parameters have been adapted to&nbsp;Polish legal guidelines for electric scooters. Maximum speed has been limited to&nbsp;20 km\/h, and range on&nbsp;a&nbsp;single charge \u2013 according to&nbsp;initial estimates \u2013 is&nbsp;40 to&nbsp;45 kilometers. During tests on&nbsp;campus surfaces, the primary focus was on&nbsp;vehicle stability, user position ergonomics, and the design&#8217;s&nbsp;behavior during maneuvering. For safety reasons, test speed was limited to&nbsp;5 km\/h. For Sara, who currently walks at&nbsp;approximately 1.3 km\/h, the ability to&nbsp;increase mobility represents a&nbsp;huge step toward greater independence.    <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2013 <em>Most three-wheelers available on&nbsp;the market require body balancing during turning and riding. For people with balance disorders, this is&nbsp;often a&nbsp;huge barrier that prevents them from independently using such solutions. I&nbsp;was looking for something that would be&nbsp;not only stable, but also intuitive to&nbsp;operate and safe<\/em> \u2013 explains Sara Wisniewski, who personally participated in&nbsp;the trials, testing the design&#8217;s&nbsp;ergonomics and maneuverability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The idea for the vehicle was born several years ago, when Sara approached the Department of&nbsp;Automotive Vehicles with a&nbsp;general concept for a&nbsp;device that would facilitate her daily functioning. Initially, other teams worked on&nbsp;the project, and the concept gradually evolved. The breakthrough came in&nbsp;2025, when Sara came under the supervision of&nbsp;Dr. Eng. Krzysztof Weigel-Milleret, a&nbsp;specialist from the Department of&nbsp;Automotive Vehicles, who had previously provided substantive oversight for the construction of <a href=\"https:\/\/mech.pk.edu.pl\/wydarzenia\/lizard-elektryczny-pojazd-czterokolowy-dla-osob-z-niepelnosprawnosciami\/\">the four-wheeled vehicle for people with disabilities &#8220;Lizard&#8221;<\/a>. He&nbsp;proposed this topic to&nbsp;Kamil Gu\u015btak for his master&#8217;s&nbsp;thesis. The result was a&nbsp;prototype vehicle that combines engineering knowledge with authentic, everyday user needs.      <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dr. Eng. Krzysztof Weigel-Milleret emphasizes that such designs are practically nonexistent on&nbsp;the market today. <em>\u2013<\/em><em> We&nbsp;see enormous space for further development of&nbsp;the project and its potential use by&nbsp;people who need stable and safe means of&nbsp;individual mobility. We&nbsp;are at&nbsp;the development stage, but initial tests show that the chosen direction is&nbsp;correct<\/em> \u2013 he&nbsp;points out. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Long tradition of&nbsp;vehicles for people with disabilities at&nbsp;PK&nbsp;Krakow University of&nbsp;Technology<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The three-wheeled scooter is&nbsp;not the first design dedicated to&nbsp;people with special needs created at&nbsp;Krak\u00f3w University of&nbsp;Technology. At&nbsp;the Faculty of&nbsp;Mechanical Engineering, the first such projects were developed as&nbsp;early as&nbsp;the 1960s and 1970s. With the participation of&nbsp;PK&nbsp;KUT specialists, the famous &#8220;Gacek&#8221; from the Communications Equipment Factory in&nbsp;\u015awidnik was designed, among others. Later, solutions dedicated to&nbsp;people with disabilities were developed by&nbsp;Prof. Witold Grzego\u017cek with successive teams of&nbsp;collaborators and students (their designs included Buzz, among others). Currently, the most intensively developed project at&nbsp;CUT is&nbsp;&#8220;Lizard&#8221; \u2013 an&nbsp;electric four-wheeler for people using wheelchairs (created by&nbsp;Bart\u0142omiej Romowicz and Adrian Starowicz).        <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now the three-wheeled scooter has joined the family of&nbsp;university vehicles with a&nbsp;social purpose. Like its predecessors, it&nbsp;demonstrates how engineering can genuinely change the everyday lives of&nbsp;people with disabilities. The creators of&nbsp;the three-wheeled prototype do&nbsp;not rule out that after refining the technology, the vehicle could reach wider use, and perhaps even commercialization. Although the scooter was created for a&nbsp;specific user, it&nbsp;is&nbsp;based on&nbsp;solutions that could also be&nbsp;useful for other people with mobility difficulties. However, the path to&nbsp;such broad application of&nbsp;the student idea is&nbsp;not simple \u2013 it&nbsp;leads from the stage of&nbsp;complete documentation to&nbsp;preparation of&nbsp;production technology, and above all requires investor support.    <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>(as, j, m)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u2013 We&nbsp;wanted to&nbsp;create a&nbsp;design that responds to&nbsp;the real needs of&nbsp;the user, not just replicates existing solutions. This is&nbsp;a&nbsp;highly practical project, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":3437,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"pkng_main_category":0,"pk_kadr":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[28,58],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science","category-press-release-2"],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/pk.edu.pl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/images_news_2026_8_PolitechnikaKrakowskaTrojkolowiec1.jpg_bf7b0823.jpg",2560,1441,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/pk.edu.pl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/images_news_2026_8_PolitechnikaKrakowskaTrojkolowiec1.jpg_bf7b0823-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/pk.edu.pl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/images_news_2026_8_PolitechnikaKrakowskaTrojkolowiec1.jpg_bf7b0823-300x169.jpg",300,169,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/pk.edu.pl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/images_news_2026_8_PolitechnikaKrakowskaTrojkolowiec1.jpg_bf7b0823-768x432.jpg",768,432,true],"large":["https:\/\/pk.edu.pl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/images_news_2026_8_PolitechnikaKrakowskaTrojkolowiec1.jpg_bf7b0823-1024x576.jpg",1024,576,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/pk.edu.pl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/images_news_2026_8_PolitechnikaKrakowskaTrojkolowiec1.jpg_bf7b0823-1536x865.jpg",1536,865,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/pk.edu.pl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/images_news_2026_8_PolitechnikaKrakowskaTrojkolowiec1.jpg_bf7b0823-2048x1153.jpg",2048,1153,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"mbielowicz","author_link":"https:\/\/pk.edu.pl\/en\/author\/mbielowicz\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"\u2013 We&nbsp;wanted to&nbsp;create a&nbsp;design that responds to&nbsp;the real needs of&nbsp;the user, not just replicates existing solutions. 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