MS University Baroda Engineers Design Low-Cost Wheelchair For Dogs

Recently, two final-year students of The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda innovated a low-cost wheelchair design for dogs who lost their legs in accidents or are disabled due to birth defects. The news come as a pleasant surprise for dog lovers across India.

The two students named Isha Panchal and Aditya Devta from the mechanical engineering stream of Faculty of Technology & Engineering, came up with the design to compete with the expensive imported wheelchairs. They wanted to create a design that will be economical and at par with imported wheelchairs which costs a lot.

These wheelchairs unlike the imported wheelchairs will be available all across India, can support the movement of canines who have all their legs paralyzed or amputated due to injury. This ergonomic design can work for dogs with any leg disability and is suitable for most of the dog breeds.

The idea was presented at the innovation challenge competition held as Vibrant Gujrat Start-up and Technology Summit in Gandhinagar. The duo call their innovation as Paw Ambulo.

Dr. Akash Pandey, asst. director for Center for Startup and Innovation at MSU said,

The innovation challenge had three stages – ideas, blooming and scale-up. Our students had submitted their proposal for the idea stage and they were selected as one of the winners with a cash prize of Rs 10,000 and felicitation from deputy chief minister Nitin Patel.  The problems that the four legged animal are facing is a huge one as the existing wheelchairs are costly. The students who had learned the design aspects as part of their studies, have brought down the design to a very simplified level so that such a wheelchair can be easily assembled and is also adjustable for different breeds and sizes of dogs.

One of the duo, Aditya Devta said that after publishing their paper, they have a plan to scale-up the design and build the wheelchairs to be sold to NGOs and animal welfare organizations. This would definitely cost them less as compared to imported wheelchairs and help them in their work.

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