SINGAPORE - An automated wheelchair ramp, designed to make it easier for the elderly and disabled to enter their Housing Board(HDB) units with steps at the entrance is one of the projects featured at Singapore Polytechnic's (SP) Engineering Show 2016.
The wheelchair elevator, which took five students from SP's Diploma of Aeronautical Engineering about eight months to develop, costs less than $3,000. It could benefit residents of about 75,000 HDB units in Jurong, Bukit Batok, Yishun, Ang Mo Kio and Tampines with steps at the entrance.
Project team leader Dylan Conceicao, 19, said: "Older HDB units have about three steps leading to the front of the house and that poses a problem for wheelchair-bound users like the elderly and disabled.
"We want to come up with a solution for these people to overcome the steps and enter their homes conveniently.
"Currently, residents with wheelchairs use a wooden ramp that is very steep, and the amount of force needed to push the wheelchair up is tremendous."
A total of 110 projects by about 400 final-year engineering students were exhibited at the fifth SP Engineering Show, which has been held annually since 2012.
Students also developed a drone which can spray chemicals to destroy bee hives for instance, or spray pesticides to prevent mosquito breeding on rooftops, so pest controllers do not have to scale heights or get close to the danger.
The SP Engineering Show started on Thursday (Jan 21) and is open to the public until Jan 22, from 9am to 5pm.