Tamil Nadu: Three B. Tech students come up with country's first self-driving wheelchair

Three B.Tech students from Tamil Nadu’s Amritha Vishwa Vidyapeetham University in Coimbatore have successfully designed a self-driving wheelchair with autonomous navigation system named ‘Self-E’.

Once the mass production gets underway, the cost of these wheelchairs can come down to under Rs 1 lakh and thus, becoming more affordable and comfortable for the masses as compared to expensive imported wheelchairs. The autonomous navigation system present in “Self-E” ensures that the user can move without any external help. The device uses ROS (Robotic operating system) to navigate the path, and a user friendly map interface powered with touch screen technology helps the user identify the desired location and the wheelchair travels according to the path specified in the map.

The map is capable of identifying the environment around the user accurately, including people, pillars, walls, tables, chair etc, using a sensor called LiDAR which can be facilitated using any android powered Smartphone or tablet.

The students Chinta Ravi Teja, Sarath Sreekanth and Akhil Raj are upbeat about the future prospects of their invention and are happy with the positive response. The trio has been working as junior researchers for their college for the past two years.

As reported  in The Indian Express, Dr.Rajesh Kannan Megalingam, the mentor behind “Self-E” says that the product is still in its prototype phase and it has a great commercial potential. This is the first time an Indian university has created an innovative product capable of improving human life on its own without any aid from foreign universities.