APU students engineer innovative wheelchair

Worthy winners: Chua (seated) posing with the prototype, together with (from left) Wong, Vickneswari, Chun and Lee.

With the aim of easing challenges faced by hospital workers in transporting immobile patients, four students from Asia Pacific University of Technology & Innovation (APU) devised an autonomous wheelchair prototype as their Group Design Project (GDP).

Their innovative solution has won recognition at the Institution of Engineers Malaysia (IEM) Integrated Design Project Short Video Competition 2022.

Themed “Disabled Assistive”, the GDP is one of the varsity’s Year Four engineering modules that provide students with the skills and knowledge in project management, design and development of a prototype to solve a real-world engineering problem.

Placing first under the Electrical category of the competition organised by the IEM Engineering Education Technical Division, the quartet’s “Autonomous Wheelchair for Hospitals” idea took cognisance of findings from the World Health Organization that 75 million people, or 1% of the world’s population, rely on wheelchair use daily.

Supervised by APU School of Engineering lecturer Vickneswari Durairajah, the team – comprising Bachelor of Engineering in Electrical & Electronic Engineering student Chua Meng Kiat, and Bachelor of Engineering in Mechatronic Engineering students Chun Boon Jian, Wong Yi Chen and Lee Kai Sheng – produced a five-minute video presentation based on the completed capstone GDP for the competition.

According to Chua, who was the team lead, the autonomous wheelchair consists of four main features: wheelchair navigation, obstacles detection and avoidance, emergency purpose feature, and voice command.

“We handled the respective functions individually,” he said in a press release dated Sept 26.

The system, according to the press release, was designed in a way that the data extracted from the wheelchair is monitored remotely at the base station using the Internet of things (IoT) – this means patients can be moved around by hospital staff remotely, hence easing their workload and improving the workflow.

In addition, the wheelchair is navigated by following the lines on the floor using colour sensors.

At junctions, there will be colour indicators on the line path to determine the direction that the wheelchair has to take.

Along the way, ultrasonic sensors and stereo cameras are used to detect obstacles.

In case of an emergency, hospital staff at the base station can press a panic button sending a signal to the wheelchair through Wi-Fi and the Message Queuing Telemetry Transport (MQTT).

This will either stop the wheelchair or change its direction towards the emergency exit.

Patients can also speak into the microphone on the wheelchair and provide programmed instructions like “Stop” to stop any movement, and “Resume” to allow the stationary wheelchair to continue moving to its destination.

Expressing surprise and delight at the win that saw them beating teams from public and private universities, Chua thanked the judges, who were made up of industry capstone or project coordinators and industrial engineers, for the recognition.

“This project challenged me to brush up on my time, people and work management skills.

“I would like to give credit to our module lecturer-cum-project supervisor Ms Vickneswari for providing us with extensive support and advice,” he said.

Delighted in her students’ achievement, Vickneswari attributed their success to teamwork, time management and good communication skills.

“Winning is not something that can be achieved overnight; it is achieved through dedication, motivation, and the drive to achieve something in life,” she said.