International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET) e-ISSN: 2395-0056 Volume: 07 Issue: 07 | July 2020 www.irjet.net p-ISSN: 2395-0072 © 2020, IRJET | Impact Factor value: 7.529 | ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal | Page 4994 Eco-friendly Hybrid Tricycle for Handicapped Sunilkumar P R 1 , Ranjana R Krishnan 2 , Aadarsh G Krishnan 3 , Ramsankar 4 , Anilkumar M H 5 1 Assistant Professor, Electrical & Electronics Engg., Govt. Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Technology, Kerala, India 2-5 UG Scholars, Dept. of Electrical & Electronics Engg., Govt. Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Technology, Kerala, India ---------------------------------------------------------------------***---------------------------------------------------------------------- Abstract - In today’s world, transportation has become one of the prime requirements of people for moving self or goods from one place to another. Mobility has thus become an essential part of our lives with many development and improvements happening in this field. It becomes more difficult for physically challenged people to commute and to perform their day to day activities like working, education, shopping etc. as they have to constantly depend on others for getting assistance to reverse the vehicle, park the vehicle, travel during night, travel during rains, etc. They may not be able to afford the daily fuel expenses. Through this project we introduce a feasible and flawless design solution - Hybrid Electric Tricycle, an environment friendly tricycle for the physically handicapped. This tricycle has multiple sources of inputs – a. c. power, solar power & regenerative braking. Mechanical hand pedaling is also provided as a backup. Apart from conventional hand pedaled tricycles and three-wheeler scooters, the option for Reverse driving is provided as assistance for handicapped. An electronic lock is also provided for protection from theft. It also provides features like headlight, horn & protection from rain. The tricycle would be a perfect companion for the future as it serves as a powerful solution for existing problems of pollution, exhausting petroleum fuels, etc. With its electric drive, reverse option and provision to carry light loads, all at a lower cost than a conventional scooter with assisting wheels, it makes a handicapped person self-sufficient. A full scale prototype of the same was also developed. Key Words: tricycle, reverse, handicapped, controller 1. INTRODUCTION For easy mobility, which is a vital part of social life of a human being, vehicles have been developed but mostly all for normal people. Developments of devices that address the unique needs of people are fundamental to their quality of life. Vehicles for handicapped are either conventional hand operated or custom made. Present vehicles for handicapped fail to consider the factors like weight, cost, simplicity, emission and operational cost. If we have a look on the conventional tricycles, first, the current users of the hand- powered tricycles do not have the physical strength or coordination to propel themselves on the tricycle with their arms and hands. Next, motorize tricycle that used fuel as it prime mover. The tricycle use fuel that is costly. Besides that, motorized tricycle with fuel engine will make pollution that can adversely affect our environment especially in this period of global warming and ozone layer depletion. Through this project we aim at mitigating the above issues by designing and fabricating a Hybrid Electric Tricycle which is driven by an electric motor. Tricycles are relatively new in the field of Hybrid Electric Vehicles. This project will develop a better tricycle. Here the hybrid sources are electric energy stored from common power supply and the other is solar energy. The relevance of solar is very important as India is located in the topic of Capricorn area where we are abundantly provided with sunlight but only a very few amount of it is being used wisely. Compared to other available tricycle the cost of operation and maintenance is very less. Also this tricycle can be available for users at affordable price. Reverse driving option, a feature that is which may not be relevant for light weight vehicles like two-wheelers and three wheelers, but is a cause of concern for physically challenged drivers. All the light weight vehicles are to be reversed manually. This may not be possible for physically challenged and for that they would have to obtain help from another person. Such a difficulty is avoided in this tricycle as motorized reverse feature is being introduced in this vehicle. The goal of the project is to make a handicapped person self-sustained for traveling from one place to another, relatively a longer distance than a vehicle for physically challenged person and also by taking into consideration environment friendly methods. Fig -1: Conventional vehicles for handicapped 2. DESIGN 2.1 Mechanical Design Mechanical design, the total weight was estimated to be 150kg. Running parameters, various forces acting on the tricycle were calculated based on [1], [2] and [3]. Drivetrain was determined to be chain & sprocket mechanism and gear ratio was fixed. The maximum braking torque was determined. A 3D model was designed using Blender software. Centre of gravity was determined by considering design aspects and stability of the tricycle was analyzed on slopes as well as horizontal positions.