Upwardly mobile
M.G. VENUGOPALAN
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A group of Mechanical Engineering students has designed a simple and cost-effective automatic wheelchair that helps the disabled climb stairs.
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MAKING IT EASY: Simply designed, this wheelchair is affordable too.
Physically disabled and accident victims, in majority of the cases, depend on wheelchairs for mobility.
However, the movement of a wheelchair when driven by the user himself, is mostly restricted to level grounds or plain surfaces, often confined to the first floor of a building, where there is no lift or ramp. For an otherwise energetic person who is unable to walk, the immobility renders him/her psychologically depressed and lessens counterbalancing faculties.
A simple and cost-effective automatic wheel chair that climbs stairs has been designed and fabricated by a group of Mechanical Engineering students of the Mookambigai College of Engineering, Keeranur.
The final-year students, S. Bharani Shivakumar, Motti Lype Thomas, K.V. Prathuesh, R. Sachin Ram, and P. L. Shankarkrishnan, undertook the activity as part of their final- year project, under the guidance of V. Samson Jayakumar.
With this device one need not depend on friends or relatives to travel in a wheelchair. The power source used for driving the wheelchair is hydraulic (oil as the medium) as it is more effective at higher loads. The basic principle underlying the mechanism is a combination of sequential vertical and horizontal movements with the help of a cylinder and piston arrangement. A power-pack consisting of a motor and hydraulic gear pump, which can be operated with finger movements makes the unit compact and user-friendly.
As there is no angular movement at any point of traverse of the wheelchair, total safety of the user is ensured while ascending or descending the flight of steps. Adjusting the relief-valve can increase the speed of the rotation of wheel, making it faster at a level surface.
Though Rs. 12,000 had been spent to come up with the prototype, the cost could be brought down drastically through largescale manufacture, to make it affordable to common man. By incorporating Programmable Logic Controllers and sensors, manoeuvrability could be enhanced through dual-button control.
(The author is principal, Mookambigai College of Engineering.)
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