2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Support systems have always been needed to improve the quality of life, especially for those disabled. One of the most common examples of such a system is the wheelchair. However, providing disabled people with the comfort of warmth while using their wheelchairs is a huge step in preventing severe cold weather injuries. There is only so much heat clothing and blankets can preserve. Our green energy seat warmers provide a source of additional necessary heat required in cold temperature. We wanted to improve wheelchairs through renewable energy, so decided to designed a device called “Hot Wheels.” Our product harnesses rotational energy from the wheels and converts it into thermal energy to power heating pads below the seat and on the back of a wheelchair. The energy would come from rotating the wheels with human power, and his is mainly for manually operating wheelchair. Therefore, the amount of thermal energy produced and stored depends on the user’s energy output.

The design consist a gear system and that was attached to a Sparkfun generator that sits inside a mounting mechanism and muted on the wheelchair. With constant movement of the wheelchair, we were able to produce and supply voltage to the heating pad. The output voltage produced by the system was recorded over time through the Arduino serial plotter. The detail will be discussed in the paper. Addressing this problem thoroughly and providing heated wheelchairs to the disabled requires government and public health intervention. We hope that this could either be up for purchase or given out through government welfare for those who qualify.