Smart Climbing Wheelchair

Can you improve the quality of life for more than 15 million individuals with disabilities and millions with motor disabilities by innovating an affordable solution to enable them to climb stairs easily and safely?

An invitation for Makers, Designers, Biomedical and Mechanical Engineers to come up with a solution for manual or low-tech electric wheelchairs with a cost less than 5,000 EGP. Winners will get a reward of 15,000 EGP provided by the Academy of Scientific Research and Technology to implement their solution.

 

The Problem

The number of People with Disabilities (PWDs) in Egypt exceeds 15 million[i] including individuals with intellectual, visual, auditory and motor disabilities. Each category face multiple challenges, and in particular those with motor disabilities, suffer a lot from their inability to climb stairs in different buildings.

There have been many initiatives and solutions to solve this challenge which varied between designing of a ramp dedicated to the PWDs and manufacturing electric wheel chairs that can climb the stairs independently. However, there are still some limitations regarding these solutions. For instance, ramps cannot be installed in all establishments, especially the residential facilities, due to the lack of proper space. Moreover, the electric stairs-climbing chairs are very expensive and their cost ranges between 30,000 EGP and 70,000 EGP making them an affordable solution for only a limited segment of individuals with motor disabilities.

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The challenge:

Design a solution to enable people with motor disabilities to climb stairs using manual or low-tech electric chairs.  The proposed solution has to satisfy the following criteria:

• The cost of the solution should not exceed  5,000 EGP;
• The solution should guarantee the independency of the user such that he/she needn’t external assistance in the process;
• The design includes safety features to protect the user in case of accidents/emergencies;
• The design is user-friendly.

 

The following criteria are bonus:

• Non-reliance on pre-installed facilities in establishments;
• Easy to move, install and store inside/around the chair.

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Reward and Terms:

The winner will receive a reward of 15,000 EGP provided by the Academy of Scientific Research and Technology, to implement the solution in cooperation with Tamkeen Association for the Rights of PWDs and Community Development in Sohag, according to the following conditions:

• The solution should meet the aforementioned criteria;
• The solution should include a clear plan of action including implementation stages, timeline, required tools/materials, estimated budget, and technical support required (if applicable);
• The reward will be given in installments, in accordance to milestones set by the innovator(s) according to their plan of action;
• As per our platform Privacy Policy, in case the intellectual property rights are not registered, the innovator should include the minimum details required to judge the technical validity and feasibility of the solution without full technical specifications.

 

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[i] http://bit.ly/2eBOAQC

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