People caught in the web of various forms of disabilities have to necessarily rely upon the external support systems like walking aids and wheelchairs to help them attain the desired mobility. But things get worse when the ailments like quadriplegia hit a person. Quadriplegia is a medical condition when, especially resulting from spinal cord injuries, all the four limbs of the patient are dysfunctional or paralysed. Patients experiencing such traumas are rendered invalid and are therefore incapable of controlling the wheelchair manually, making them completely dependent on others. To solve this problem, a group of young students came up with an innovation that will help all the quadriplegic patients.
The group comprise of four 24-year-olds – Anzar Draboo, Gurvinder Singh, Tabin Nissar and Nida Bashir – who have completed their Bachelors of Technology from SSM College of Engineering in 2017.
They have introduced a promising panacea to the world of medicine by designing a head-motion controlled wheelchair, which operates by the movements of the head of a person. The wheelchair has been the outcome of these students’ final year project, a requirement for the completion of the BTech degree.
“In the last semester, I wanted to do something that would not only be restricted to the boundaries of a college project but could be beneficial to the society as well. The thought of a wheelchair was already there but as to the modes of its operation, I had several options at my disposal. Either I had to make it joystick controlled, which is a variant widely used across the world, or I had to make it on vocal recognition, which would have included the extensive usage of electronics and microcontrollers. Since I was from mechanical background, the challenge was to incorporate the department of electronics because in a project like this there is a lot of electronic integration and for the microcontrollers, we would require a lot of computer programming plus the costs would shoot higher. After a couple of brainstorming sessions with my group mates, we came up with the idea of head motion controlled wheelchair. This innovation is for a quadriplegic patient who is affected by paralysis of all four limbs due to a trauma to spinal cord. Since he will be unable to move his limbs, therefore a joystick controlled wheelchair isn’t any option in that case. I could have also used voice recognition but again it had its own drawbacks like to ensure the meticulous noise cancellation in crowded places,” says Anzar.
Since the private institutions do not play any role in funding, Anzar and his group mates had to pay from their own pockets by investing a total of Rs 60,000. The estimated price for the project was too high so they tried cost cutting by avoiding the use of microcontrollers.
“You will see plenty of head motion controlled wheelchairs but most of them are microcontroller based. Since it would have required intervention from different departments and also to avoid repetition, we switched to the usage of elementary class 12th physics. We made a circuit of diodes and designed a tilt communicator system to develop a communication between the patient and the wheelchair through the tilt of the head. For example, if I moved my head forward, they would sense the motion and corresponding to that generate a signal, which would then be processed by the diodes. Our design incorporates simple principles – which we study in our higher secondary education – of digital and analog circuits to avoid complexity and tackle the cost issue,” says Anzar. “Also, to control the speed of wheelchair, we designed gears which, because of the lack of mechanical expertise in the valley, we had to manufacture from outside state” he added.
The group faced their biggest challenge when situation in the valley worsened during the turmoil of 2016, which extensively hindered their trips to college. Unable to avail assistance of their guide, they had to find an alternative, say an alternative location, where they could meet and discuss the project. The persistent internet ban and prepaid cellular communication made it worse as the vast online and indispensable resource base was completely inaccessible; no internet meant no research.
“Due to the turmoil we couldn’t go to college adding to our difficulties by posing as the biggest challenge. We had bought a remote controlled toy car from Flipkart to analyze the radio transmission, its components and the circuit. Devoting ample time to research, we were certain that perseverance would play a key role in our innovative endeavour. We also took help from few people belonging to the field of electronics. I recall how we used to discuss our designs on the banks of Jhelum in times of strikes,” says Gurvinder.
These budding innovators had one aim in mind– to empower quadriplegic people. The whole system is designed to enable and ensure the basic mobility to such people though they believe that there is an extensive room for improvements and modifications in their model. They have been discussing about the modifications they want to incorporate in their prototype, which before they were unable to as the time and resources at their disposal were strictly limited.
“Right now we are working on studying brain waves for which we have to use Electron Encephalograph (EEG). We also have a research paper, which we are looking forward to get published in an international biomedical journal. I and Gurvinder are planning to pursue masters in Automation to gain more knowledge regarding this field,” says Anzar.
The team received accolades and recognition for their project when it got selected to be showcased at TALAASH-Skill & Entrepreneurship Conclave 2018 organised by the Jammu and Kashmir Skill Development Mission. Their wheelchair was among the eight models, which were shortlisted from more than 50 innovations.
Inventions like these have the potential to transform the world of specially abled people. But with hindrances like problem in funding, progress seems an impassable gulf. There are so many students in the state with potentially bright ideas who are capable of achieving great heights, but the bottlenecks like lack of support and financial assistance is leading them go nowhere.
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