DBCE Mechanical Students Develop Disabled Friendly Wheelchair

Final year Mechanical Engineering students of Don Bosco College Of Engineering, Deepak Kolur, Prashant Gaonkar, Vinay Naik, Saideep Naik and Anay Kalghatgi have developed and tested a prototype of a Disabled friendly wheelchair. The Project was guided by Prof. Swapnil Ramani, Assistant Professor and Prof. Ajit Salunke, HOD Mechanical Engineering Department.

The project deals with design and fabrication of disabled friendly wheelchair with features like converting wheelchair into seating to sleeping/standing position, automatic bracing system etc. The system is less power consuming and economical compared to the existing models available in the market. Standing position is achieved by means of using double acting pneumatic cylinder. Air flow inside the cylinder and push/extend the piston which helps to make wheelchair stand.

Sleeping position is obtained by simple mechanism of tilting of backrest and lifting of footrest. All required operations will be performed automatically by operator’s commands via joystick

The cost of this prototype is approximately Rs. 55000/- and if implemented as a product on a larger scale can be beneficial to disabled/paralyzed people, injured sportsmen and defense personnel injured in the line of duty to perform routine tasks without assistance. It is also much more economically viable option compared to the other wheelchairs available in the market. The project was selected for the Second Level Screening of the National level DRDO Robotics and Unmanned Systems Exposition (DRUSE) in April 2018. The project was one out of the 165 projects selected nation wide for the 2^nd round of screening and won a prize money of Rs.10000/. The team members are grateful to the Director, Fr. Kinley D’ Cruz and Principal, Dr. Neena Panandikar for providing the necessary support for execution of the project. The financial support for the project was provided by Mr. Arnoldo do Carmo Lobo, Managing Trustee of Talent– In – You, a Charitable Organization. The prototype will be displayed during the College Annual Event Kshitij 2018 to be held from 26^th to 28^th July 2018.