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Low Cost Solar Powered Wheel Bangladesh
Low Cost Solar Powered Wheel Bangladesh
Low Cost Solar Powered Wheel Bangladesh
AbstractThis paper presents a study on low cost solar below 18 years, the prevalence of disability is estimated at
powered wheelchair for disabled people of Bangladesh. The main 6% and for the age group above 18 years it is 14%. It can
components are: the wheelchair structure, the solar panels, the be regarded as 3.4 million children with disabilities and 10.2
DC motors, the controlling circuits, microcontroller and joystick.
The proposed model is very useful for the physically challenged million adults with disabilities[6]. And about 4.6% people get
people of the rural areas. This proposed model is affordable to the disability due to spinal cord injury. In Bangladesh, the total age
low income people of countries like Bangladesh. The wheelchair group for spinal cord injury is ranged between 10-70 years.
is cost effective and user friendly. The proposed model is self- The majority of the patients age is between 20-30 years, 19%
driven and independent. For the proposed model the Life Cycle between 10-20 years, between 20-30 years it is 42%, 20%
Cost analysis is done and compared with the power wheelchair
that takes the grid power for charging and the proposed model between 30-40 years, between 40-50 year it is 15% and 4%
is proven to be lower in the cost. The solar powered wheelchair between 50-60 years[7].
will help the physically challenged people a great deal in their There are a lot of difficulties and hassles involved with the
day to day movements. The proposed model will be very effective mobility of the physically challenged people in the society. It
in the rural areas as well as in the urban areas. has been seen over the times that the physically challenged
Index Termssolar power; disability; wheelchair; spinal
cord;low cost;mobility;assistive device. people are basically using some assistive devices such as
crutches, artificial limbs or legs etc. and manual wheel chairs
or even three-wheelers for their day-to-day movements. But
I. I NTRODUCTION
these wheel chairs or three-wheelers are crude or of inefficient
Bangladesh is considered as a developing country. It has in design; not very much suitable for outdoor use or common
a large population of 158,014,687[1]. This densely popu- terrain in the country like Bangladesh. Undoubtedly these
lated country has a population density of 964 per square manual wheel chairs or the three-wheelers are the blessings
kilometer[2]. About 80% of the total population lives in the for crippled people but in the question of humanity, it is just
villages and about 60% people are engaged in agriculture[3]. to add insult to injury. Because commonly found manual wheel
The economic growth of the country is not enough to support chairs or three-wheelers have a basic problem that the patient
all the people with the facilities they demand. Still this country must use physical force to turn the wheels to move towards
is trying hard to fulfill the basic needs of the large population. his or her desired direction. This action is physically stressful.
The per capita Gross National Income (GNP) of the country It can result in muscle and joint pain and degradation, torn
is 1,190 USD[4]. The data mentioned above gives an idea rotor cuffs, repetitive stress injury and carpal tunnel syndrome;
about the lifestyle of the people of the country. Most of the which causes secondary injury or further disability. A study on
people belong to the middle class or lower middle class of wheelchair users shows that about 41.25% patients have been
the society. To them disability is considered as a curse. It found loss of range of motion, 29.4% patients are suffering
is regarded as an embarrassment to the family the disabled from shoulder pain, wrist pain caused to 23.53% patients,
people belongs to. This negligence of the society makes a bar 25.5% patients have back pain, 29.4% patients feel discomfort
between the persons with disabilities from the others in the during the time of propelling the wheelchair[5].
society on normal economic, social and political activities in Although mobility or assistive device users are relatively
their families, communities, essential services and education. small minority of the total population with disabilities, their
The number of persons with disabilities is so high that it importance is greater than the numbers. Among all the mobil-
requires special attention. In Bangladesh about 10% of the to- ity or assistive devices, wheelchairs have become the visible
tal population is disabled. World Health Organization (WHO) symbols of disability. It has become a sign on the context of
estimated the prevalence of the disable person at 10.5% which disability. Whenever anyone thinks about a disabled person
is more common in the rural areas of the country[5]. The total the first thing that comes to mind is a person on a wheelchair.
rate of the physically disabled population is 27.5%. In children Proper understanding of the magnitude and characteristics of
the people using these assistive technologies is therefore of panels mounted at the top, exposed to sunlight. It can be used
great importance. For these devices to be used effectively in in the places where there is no electricity.
the day to day movements of the physically challenged people, As mentioned earlier, the first challenge of making this
the environments in which they are used must be accessible. wheelchair was its cost. It has to be made of low cost to
However, the importance of developing these assistive de- make it affordable for all. Secondly the challenge was to make
vice technologies reaches to the utmost. The use of the con- it simple and user friendly. It is made so simple that if any
ventional energy sources and the rapid development process problem occurs any technician can fix the problems. The solar
of the present world definitely have some bad impacts on panels are available and the cost of these panels is decreasing
the environment and its surroundings. It causes depleting day by day with the increasing efficiency. The controlling is
limited energy resource. It may damage the ecosystem and made user friendly so that the patients could not feel any stress
leads to environment pollution and global warming. As a and pressure during the movements.
result, environment friendly design of an assistive device
for the physically challenged people is the crying need of III. S OLAR E NERGY AND ITS P ERSPECTIVE
the time and it is very much necessary to develop user
friendly equipment or mode of transport for better living and In the present world, the demand for energy is increasing
for better future. Wonderful inventions are made because of day by day. Sooner or later it will be much higher than
the enormous capacity to adopt new means in the difficult the present condition. So the world is now heading towards
situations. The new inventions are particularly beneficial to renewable energy leaving behind fossil fuels energy for their
the people with mobility problems. Power wheelchairs have harmful effects on environment. The energy that can be
become a revolution in the assistive device technologies. Our regenerated is known as renewable energy being generated
proposed model is one kind of power wheelchair. But our from wind, sunlight, geothermal heat, tides, rain etc. Solar
proposed model is a solar powered wheelchair which is of low power, wind power, biomass power, hydroelectricity are some
cost and effective for the rural people of developing countries of the renewable energy. Due to the high availability of the
like Bangladesh. sunlight many countries of the world are accepting solar
In this paper, section II depicts the perspective of solar energy and thus it is becoming one of the most commonly
wheelchair, section III introduces solar energy and its per- used renewable energy. Solar energy is produced by converting
spective, section IV describes the proposed model, section V sunlight into electrical energy using solar panels. This energy
gives the features of the proposed model, section VI shows the system is found to be environment friendly and less costly.
system cost assumptions, section VII gives the LCC analysis Many countries like Bangladesh, Pakistan, India and many
and finally the work is concluded in section VIII. others are now trying to solve their electricity problem by
using solar energy. This energy is being rapidly implemented
II. P ERSPECTIVE OF S OLAR W HEELCHAIR by most of the developed countries. Leading countries of the
In the early times, mobility scooters were first introduced. world according to the installed solar energy system: Germany:
It changed the way of thinking about a wheelchair. Electric 35.5 GW, China: 18.3 GW, Italy: 17.6 GW, Japan: 13.6 GW,
wheelchairs have gained popularity nowadays, more than half United States: 12 GW[8].
a century later of mobility scooters. These wheelchairs have Bangladesh is rich enough in natural gases but erection of
been playing a vital role in helping the disable people. These these gases is very costly and it needs high technology. Being
electric wheelchairs are not only helping the permanently a highly populated country Bangladesh severely faces elec-
disable people to move according to own desire but also is used tricity crisis. Load shedding is increasing with the number of
during the physical therapy of injured people who could not increasing population. So Bangladesh is in need of more power
walk temporarily. One of the many advantages of the electric generation and this crisis of electricity can be solved using the
wheelchairs is that it can be recycled as long as the motors are solar energy. The geographical position of Bangladesh (20.30
well maintained. Many people purchase used electric powered and 26.38 degree N latitude and 88.04 and 92.44 degree E) is
wheelchairs for their cheaper price and a pretty long lifespan. preferable for assigning solar power system. Power Generation
Taking the overall prevailing situation into account, the capacity of Bangladesh is 10,648 MW till September 2014,
development of a solar powered wheelchair for the physically user accessibility is 68%[9]. Maximum demand of power in
challenged people is a vital effort where solar energy and its Bangladesh is 7418 MW[10]. Government has planned to
advantages are considered. Another challenge was to make achieve 16000 MW national power generation capacity and
the wheelchair of low cost otherwise it will not be affordable 800 MW from renewable sources by 2015[11]. According to
for the rural people of the countries like Bangladesh. A solar NASA Surface meteorology and Solar Energy RET Screen
powered wheelchair could be a stand-alone system. It is a Data, Bangladesh has got a great future in the field of solar
self-operated wheelchair and independent in nature. Using the energy generation. The amount of clear index that is needed for
unending solar energy from the sun, this chair will have no good solar radiation is present in our country according to the
impact on the national electricity production as Bangladesh report. So solar energy can be very helpful for a country like
has shortage in its electricity production. It is taking power Bangladesh where the shortage of energy is high. Thats why
for running the motors by solar energy from the two solar the study on solar energy is gaining lots of interest among the
Fig. 1. Bar plot of daily solar radiation data
TABLE I
D IRECTION C ONTROL OF THE S OLAR P OWERED W HEELCHAIR
Parameter Value
User weight max. 140kg
Dimension 100 cm54 cm
Seat height, min. 35-60 cm
Back-rest recline max. 15o
Tilt-in-space 5o - 30o
Ground clearance 6 cm
Slope max. 6o
Climbs obstacles of max. 6 cm
TABLE III
E STIMATED COST OF THE PROPOSED WHEEL CHAIR
Parts Cost(Taka)
Wheel Chair 5,000
Solar panel 10,000
DC motor & gear 3,000
Batteries 7,000
Other Components 4,000
Total 29,000