Cao Trung Quân and Lê Minh Hiếu assemble a self-propelled wheelchair for people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. — VNA/VNS Photo Thanh Thuỷ

QUẢNG TRỊ — Two students from the Quảng Trị Town High School have invented a wheelchair to support people with disabilities suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

This is a charitable act from the students' hearts towards people with disabilities to improve their quality of life, especially in communication and movement.

The project 'Autonomous wheelchair to support people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis in moving and communicating' was conducted by Cao Trung Quân, class 12A1 and Lê Minh Hiếu, class 12A2 from June last year.

The product was conceived and conceptualised when Hiếu and Quân accidentally viewed online some ALS patients.

Hiếu said that ALS causes progressive neurodegeneration, weakening and loss of muscle function, making it difficult for the patients to move and talk.

Due to severe limitations in movement and daily activities, ALS patients are often classified as people with mobility disabilities.

“With the desire to help them move around the house and communicate, it took us nine months to complete the smart wheelchair. During the process, we received great support from the school and teachers from the idea generation, implementation to completion,” said Hiếu.

The wheelchair is integrated with a device using Gaze Tracking technology.

Disabled people have glasses to identify and control the chair with their eye pupil, moving through different directions on a two-dimensional map.

The wheelchair has two operating systems: self-propelled and manual. For the self-propelled system, through pupil control, the wheelchair can automatically move to the desired points of the disabled person through the family member's support in scanning the map and selecting the destination.

This mode uses Lidar sensors, Real sense cameras, Encoders and Nav2/ROS2 systems to create maps, locate and navigate the wheelchair, which can help the vehicle find a new path or stop when encountering obstacles.

The manual control mode is through simulated control signals using DAC circuits and PID algorithms helps the vehicle move smoothly in eight directions.

In particular, the vehicle has a communication function that allows patients to select sentences from a virtual keyboard through the pupil to form complete sentences and send messages via Telegram between the disabled person and their family in Vietnamese and English.

Quân said: “The goal we are aiming for is to create and apply the product in life so that ALS patients can use the wheelchairs to move and communicate, improving their life quality as well as supporting their relatives.”

Changing the future

The project won first prize at the National Science and Technology Research Competition for junior, secondary and high school students in the 2024-2025 school year.

It will soon be selected to participate in the International Science and Engineering Fair 2025 (INTEL ISEF 2025) from May 10 to 16 in the US.

Lê Công Long, physics teacher at the Quảng Trị Town High School – the direct supervisor of the two students' project, said: “I have accompanied two of them since the beginning of the school-level competition, then to the provincial and national levels. In the project, the knowledge is very extensive, from mechanics, electricity to programming. Fortunately, the two students always strive, are creative, explore and are patient to achieve their goals.

“There is not much time left, we are working together to complete the product from comments of the national jury,” he said.

The achievements demonstrate the tireless efforts of the students with a dream of supporting the disabled in the community.

Quân said that in order for the project to achieve the best results in the upcoming competition, they were working hard to further develop and perfect it with improvements in the new circuit as well as redesigning a new robot model on the vehicle so that it can help the wheelchair move more smoothly within the house.

“This is the first time we have participated in an international competition, our goal is to try our best, no matter what the result is, we will be satisfied with what we have achieved,” said Quân.

This is the second time that Quảng Trị High School has had a project participating in the International Science and Engineering Fair. Previously, a student of the school, Phạm Huy, won the third prize at the fair held in the US in 2017 with the project 'Robotic arm to support people with disabilities'.

In recent years, provincial students have continuously won high prizes at national science and technology competitions with many good projects, highly applicable and supporting the community, especially the disadvantaged.

This not only demonstrates the students' ability and desire to learn, but also the love for the community that they spread through the most practical actions.

Lê Thị Hương, Director of the Quảng Trị Department of Education and Training, said that the project demonstrated the excellence and efforts of students in Quảng Trị Town.

“This is an important motivation for teachers and students to make more efforts. The department will continue to advise and create the most favourable conditions for students to participate in the competition,” she said. — VNS