Patent ID: 7402019

Claim:
For a motor car having a front door adjacent the driver's seat and a luggage compartment with a high rear door, an apparatus adapted to transport automatically a wheelchair from a transport position inside said luggage compartment to an extended position adjacent said front door, said apparatus being entirely accommodated in said luggage compartment when said wheelchair is in said transport position, said apparatus comprising a base unit firmly mountable to the floor of said luggage compartment; a horizontal motion mechanism (HMM) including a strong frame mounted by one end thereof to said base unit for horizontal rotation, and an intermediate assembly rotatably joined to the other end of said frame; a vertical motion mechanism (VMM) mounted on said intermediate assembly; and a capturing unit mounted on said VMM, for capturing and holding said wheelchair, wherein in said transport position, the plane of the wheelchair's wheels is essentially vertical and perpendicular to the car's longitudinal axis; said HMM further comprises a horizontal drive and a horizontal kinematical chain including said strong frame and extending between said base unit and said intermediate assembly such that said HMM is adapted to perform, driven by said horizontal drive only, about half-circle horizontal rotation of said strong frame from said transport position of the wheelchair in one direction and, simultaneously, about quarter-circle horizontal rotation of said intermediate assembly in the opposite direction, thereby positioning said VMM outside the luggage compartment, with said wheelchair adjacent to a lateral side of said car and said plane of the wheels approximately parallel to said longitudinal axis of the car.