JOIN USStudents bring out their inventive best at fair
Four students from Siddaganga Institute of Technology, Tumkur, claim they have designed and developed an affordable, intelligent wheelchair which is useful not only to disabled persons but even senior citizens, enhancing their mobility and independence.
“The prototype cost us around Rs 5,000. Once commercialised, it will cost Rs 20,000- Rs 25,000, way cheaper than similar products available in the market ranging between Rs 80,000 and Rs 95,000,” Meghana S, one of the students said.
The chair can be operated in three modes. The wired, manual-control mode, wherein the person controls the chair’s movement through a keypad interface. Second, a wireless remote-control mode, using an RF module, and third, special control (tilt control) mode wherein the person can operate the chair by head movement,” Chandan S S, another team member said.
The chair is equipped with emergency alert system, synced with global positioning system (GPS) and GSM. “While GPS is used to identify the location of the chair, it will be loaded with emergency numbers, to contact which GSM will be used,” Meghana said, adding all that the person needs to do is press a button on the keypad. The team has also incorporated an obstacle-detection system, but more work needs to be done on the same.
Among similar inventions displayed at QuEST Ingenium 2013, two other teams from Karnataka, Dayananda Sagar College, Bangalore and Angadi Institute of Technology and Management, Belgaum, were attractive. Dayananda Sagar’s High Clean Spiderbot promises a host of features, including intelligence gathering about ‘hostile situation,’ so as to launch a cleaning programme it is also capable of inspecting structures and cleaning them.
Angadi Institute of Technology & Management presented their technology––Witcricity, an embedded system. The team explored the options of having wireless electricity.