Students in wheelchairs do not need to ... roll

Three students of Quang Binh University Nguyen Manh Hung, Bui Thanh Vu and Nguyen Huu Thang have successfully built a cheap electric wheelchair.

This invention has just been awarded the second prize of the Scientific Research Student Contest of Quang Binh University.

On the outside, the wheelchair is shaped like other normal wheelchairs. However, the difference lies in the operating system connected between an electric motor attached below the wheel shaft and a small control button attached to the upper armrest.

Nguyen Manh Hung , who initiated the idea of ​​the car, said that instead of using the hand to push, this wheelchair is fitted with 24V electric motor to automatically operate.

The car is also designed with forward, backward, acceleration, deceleration modes, stopping on the steps on the control button. The directional movement is designed with an iron bar attached to the front wheel shaft to the user's right hand position.

The car has a very simple description, but it took a few months for the three students who love manufacturing.

Nguyen Manh Hung sits on a wheelchair 'performing' a round - (Photo: Q.NAM).

Outside of school, these three young people gather at the practical workshop of the electrical department to research and assemble the car. Hung said that initially, when many people with disabilities went to sell lottery tickets on wheelchairs, there was one more person pushing hard behind them.

Once visiting his relatives at the hospital, Hung discovered that some wheelchairs were broken, thrown in the corner of the room. So you think about making a wheelchair that doesn't have to . roll but run automatically, the price is cheap so the poor can buy.

Hung and his group of friends risked going to the hospital to ask for the broken frame of the wheelchair, to electric bike repair shops 'begging' the owner to 'liquidate' the engine.

'The lowest price of this engine is sold at nearly 2 million dong. Electric motor of electric bicycle only solves the movement. For people with disabilities to be able to control, it must make this motor move in accordance with the ability of the disabled to control, ' Hung said.

This requirement can only be solved via electronic microchip system. A few days, he studied and painted, eventually the microchip system to operate the car was completed by your group.

Compared to the average price of an automatic wheelchair in the market of about VND 15 million, this homemade wheelchair is only about VND 3 million. This cheap price is due to the components made so the car is used by children from scrap.

Having finished the final details, Hung sat up, 'performing' around the school. The wheelchair automatically rolled after only a small turn of the hand.

Hung shared that you want poor people with disabilities to have the opportunity to buy an automatic wheelchair to facilitate their daily activities.

According to Master Nguyen Van Doai - Head of the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering (Faculty of Technology and Technology - Quang Binh University), the most outstanding feature of this product is the price.

'The idea of ​​designing a car is not new. But the human meaning and its applicability to reality are very positive. If mass production is applied, this cheap electric wheelchair model will be able to go to every poor disabled family ' - Doai master said.