My Final Year Project : SIP AND PUFF CONTROL BASED WHEELCHAIR
My University
Today, I would briefly write about my Final Year Project. I'm Electrical Engineer graduated from NUCES-FAST Islamabad. Usually, final year of university is considered to be the golden period of life but in my case it was the worst year because of my Final Year Project which held me back from enjoying the perks and pleasures of the final year.
My Final year Project was actually technologically advanced wheelchair prototype that is controlled through different levels of human breathing pressures. The operator blows the air through tube according to pre-defined instructions, and gets the desired motion. The overall mechanism incorporates and makes use of pressure sensor, instrumentation amplifier, ICs, motors and Arduino to measure and detect the pressure levels and take swift decisions accordingly.
BASED ON ITS WORKING MECHANISM WE NAMED OUR PROJECT "SIP AND PUFF CONTROL BASED WHEELCHAIR"
The purpose of this project was to give an opportunity to physically challenged people to achieve independence and enhanced mobility in their lives. This project targets those special people who are completely paralyzed and are unable to move feet or hands. To help them in achieving independence in their lives we set to start working on this concept.
I don't have the video of its final version though I have this short video of it in its raw form
Long story short, at the end of semester we were able to design a complete prototype of the wheelchair bot. We presented our project in front of the panel finely and we were awarded A grade.
This would be incredibly useful in some specific cases of disability. Would there be some way of adapting it for people who do not have control of respiration?
Examples of this would be cases where there are spinal injuries involving levels C4 and above or degenerative diseases where there is a total loss of neurological control (but cranial nerves can be spared until the late stages).
In these cases facial/eye muscles and tongue movements could be an alternative.
Actually this question was raised by one of the panel members to whom we were presenting this project. He asked what if someone is asthmatic and cannot have a controlled breathing system?
First of all user don't have to breathe continuously to keep wheechair operational. For instance, user just need to a hard puff once in order to drive chair in forward motion, similarly a soft puff is needed in order to turn left which would be continuous, the wheelchair will keep on turning until user is giving an input of soft puff.
Apart from that we have also installed a kill switch for safety measures. If something unusual happens user can press it to halt the operations.
Right but in some cases people can't control their breathing at all - I was just wondering if there was some way to apply this to them.
Before operating this wheelchair the user must undergo proper training for at least 3 4 days under supervision.
I've got a good friend who completely lacks muscle control, and cannot move anything but breath, and maybe fingers slightly, just enough to type via screen.
Brilliant, of course. Anyone who must sit in a chair all day will end up thinking quite a lot.
But still, it is a brutal life for this person.
I hope that this can be used to help people like this, because they are worth helping. People, no matter their circumstances, can do glorious things if given a chance.
Exactly, the ultimate purpose behind this project was to give an opportunity to those who are completely paralysed.
Great job :)
What a great idea, something that will really be a huge help for people in these circumstances. I would be proud to have created such a thing, I would also like to let you know that...
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Let me know if you have any questions regarding the project or nomination. Hope to hear from you soon!
Amazing! keep up the good work :) followed
Great effort , you guys deserved A grade