Wheeleo at Home: Vacuuming Independently

In this clinical case, we observe a seemingly simple activity—vacuuming—that actually reveals a common motor constraint for people with reduced mobility: having a reliable walking aid while keeping one hand free to perform tasks. This is exactly the situation that Wheeleo® enables at home, as demonstrated in the video accompanying this article.

Initial Situation

The scene takes place in a normally furnished living room: a table and chairs, a rug, a bookshelf, armchairs. Nothing has been cleared or rearranged for the occasion. This is precisely what makes the exercise representative of real-world use: the person must move between obstacles, change direction several times, and perform an instrumental task—using an upright vacuum cleaner with autonomous brush—while moving.

The Limitation Encountered

A conventional walker, requiring two-handed grip, occupies both of the person’s hands. In this context, the task becomes either impossible with the walking aid, or performed without it, which shifts the risk elsewhere rather than eliminating it. A cane, on the other hand, presents a different type of limitation: by design, it is placed down and then lifted with each step. Between these two moments, support no longer exists at that precise location, and the person must anticipate with each step where and when to place it down again.

The Wheeleo® Advantage

The Wheeleo® is designed for unilateral support: one hand is sufficient for support, leaving the other hand available for the vacuum cleaner. Observing the video frame by frame, two mechanical elements emerge clearly.

The first concerns ground contact. Throughout the filmed movement—including during the tightest turn, executed between a sofa and an armchair—all four wheels of the Wheeleo® remain in continuous contact with the ground. At no point is there a suspension phase or momentary support readjustment, unlike a cane whose operation involves support phases and phases where it is lifted between steps.

The second concerns movement tracking. The Wheeleo® base accompanies each body movement—forward, backward, pivot—without imposing a trajectory or rhythm on the person. Support remains available where the person moves, rather than fixed at a point the person would need to reach.

Impact on Daily Life and Independence

What this video shows is not a rehabilitation exercise in the traditional sense. The person is not training to walk on a clinical platform: they are doing housework, in their own living room, with their own space constraints. This is an instrumental activity of daily living (IADL) performed under real conditions, making it a concrete rehabilitation goal directly transferable to independence at home.

For rehabilitation professionals, this type of real-world scenario raises an interesting question in home assessments: how to evaluate a dual task that combines walking aid and instrumental activity in the patient’s actual space rather than in a clinical setting?