IIT-Madras launches country’s first standing wheelchair: Arise

Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras has launched country’s first indigenously designed standing wheelchair named as ‘Arise’ in presence of Union Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment Thawarchand Gehlot at the institute.

About Wheelchair ‘Arise’

The assistive device enables a differently-abled person requiring a wheelchair to shift from sitting to standing position, and vice versa, independently and in a controlled manner. The testing partners for Arise included individual users, hospitals, NGOs, rehabilitation centres and clinicians who provided inputs.

The device was designed and developed by TTK Center for Rehabilitation Research and Device Development (R2D2) at IIT Madras in collaboration with Phoenix Medical Systems.

The project was also supported from foreign countries such as United Kingdom (UK) and moreover, the commercialisation of Standing Wheelchair technology was made possible with support from Wellcome Trust (UK) through an ‘Affordable Healthcare in India’ Award. This award brought together research and manufacturing partners.

Since Arise is a novel, mass-manufacturable mechanical design (one Indian patent granted, other Indian, US and China patents pending), and with Phoenix’s manufacturing capabilities, it will be made available at an affordable price of around Rs.15,000.

Month: Current Affairs - November, 2019