Awesome New Ideas For A
Better
Tomorrow (11) - A
Wheelchair That Can Climb Stairs
Life-saving
gadgets, safer ways to travel, solutions for sanitation and
cost-effective answers to everyday problems… India has a host of
good ideas just waiting to explode. See what’s bubbling under
We scouted the length and breadth of the country to find the brightest innovations. The list continues
11. A Wheelchair That Can Climb Stairs
BRAINCHILD OF: Shanu Sharma
When
she designed a school that would give physically challenged kids the
same access as others for her final-year Architecture project, Shanu
Sharma realised there was a need for a product that helped a
disabled person feel included in all environments. Sharma, now
studying industrial design at IIT Kanpur, designed the Vardaan, a
wheelchair that can climb stairs. Its three-pronged wheels work on
the same principle as the human foot: heel first, then toe. “I
watched how a child climbed stairs by hauling himself up and down. A
lever drags the wheel in the same way,” she says. Sharma received
funding from the Indian government’s Department of Science and
Technology and has now designed another wheelchair that can run on
the ground as well as climb stairs.
The
chair has been tested by the disabled on the IIT campus. She hopes
she will soon get funding to mass produce it. “Right now, I need a
collaboration with an R&D firm that can help me improve this
design, which has its flaws (it needs a disabled person with good
upper-body strength to operate it). Once it’s foolproof, I want to
make sure it doesn’t cost more than Rs.20,000.”
HTBR141130
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