Wheelchairs cross the terrain named TN98

While his peers are sprinting for the national high school exam, Nguyen Hoang Ngan and Pham Thanh Truc are plying the mechanical workshop, wrestling English technical documents to create wheelchairs that cross the terrain. unique.

The idea of cross-wheelchair-accessible wheelchairs arose when Hoang Ngan saw his grandfather in his hometown and elderly people in the neighborhood due to limited health, so he just hung around the gate, in the apartment corridor. They also want to go there, interact with neighbors but are afraid to bother, depending on others.

Since then, Ngan wants to make a car for the elderly and people with disabilities to travel conveniently, more happily and confidently.

Hoang Ngan and Thanh Truc on their car - (Photo: Huy Hoang).

TN98

It is the name of a wheelchair model built by Thanh Truc and Hoang Ngan, winning the first prize at the national science and technology competition in the 2015-2016 school year for high school students in the South, held in Dong Nai. last March

The name of the vehicle is TN98, which is based on the abbreviated name of Ngan and Truc in the same year of 1998.

The car is equipped with a parking controller, stop, turn left, turn right and the sensor adjusts the tilt of the seat. Compared to many cars of the same type, TN98 has a compact size, easy to move through narrow areas such as doors, corridors, elevators, steps .

Instead of using round cakes like normal wheelchairs, TN98 is run by rubber-covered crawler made by Truc and Ngan. During operation, the contact area between crawler and large road surface, the average pressure of the vehicle on the ground decreases, the vehicle goes easily on muddy and muddy ground.

In the uneven road conditions in Vietnam, crawler vehicles have more and more advantages on mobile terrain.

The outstanding advantage of TN98 is to help users to go up and down stairs with a slope of up to 30 ⁰ and high stairs not exceeding 25cm. Rubber-wrapped crawler adheres to each step, bringing users up or down with a maximum speed of 7km / h without sliding or falling.

Not long ago, the Swiss student group made this idea. But with that type of car, users have to turn their backs on the stairs, causing anxiety and anxiety when going up and down the slope. It is also entangled at that point, but after many trials, Hoang Ngan applies the principle of dynamic balance in a semicircular iron frame.

This system allows the seat to automatically adjust the position, tilt angle to change the center of gravity. When the car goes upstairs, the chair comes forward; When the car goes down, the seat reclines back. The person sitting on the car is always in balance.

TN98 wheelchairs climb narrow stairs in the family - (Photo: NVCC).

Inspiration for research enthusiasts

According to Hoang Ngan, if mass production, the price of a TN98 is about 17 million dong . While most wheelchairs over the world have a price of around VND 300 million, TN98 is suitable for the conditions of many elderly and disabled people in Vietnam. The total cost for this study is about VND 20 million.

Besides the professional advice of teachers, the school also supports more than 1/3 of the cost to encourage you to pursue the idea to the end. So far, Truc and Ngan's wheelchairs have undergone seven improvements.

In next May, Ngan, Truc and TN98 will come to the US to participate in the 2016 International Science and Technology Competition (Intel ISEF) organized by Intel USA Group. TN98 is being improved in the direction of light, durable, easy to disassemble, increase engine efficiency, and have a protective frame for users in case of bumping or turning.

The prize is not the highest goal in this trip. Ngan and Truc saw this as an opportunity for TN98 to enter the "green eye " of US sponsors. It would be ideal if there is a unit to accept mass production investment TN98, but if the investor is only interested, you are willing to exchange ideas because the ultimate goal of TN98 is for the elderly and disabled.

Encourage pursuing the idea to the end

Wheelchair over terrain TN98 is an applied research, can completely produce and use mass. The problem is just how much time and effort is required to achieve that goal. From scientific research to application products is not as simple and quick as many people imagine.

From the research results, it is necessary to create a template and through new production projects to create the first application version. If producers are interested, they will produce and use them on a large scale.

At their age, passion for scientific research and creative practice has been a commendable effort, not giving them the responsibility to put ideas into life. They also have to learn a lot, have to play, do not need to watch the work as adults.

A creative idea that wants to go into life must be a question for life to answer. In this competition, the judges' evaluation, even the reward, is mainly to encourage their passion and to pursue their end-to-end ideas.

Prof. Dr. Tran Van Lang (Institute of Applied Mechanics and Informatics, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology)