Pakistani engineering student built first voice-operated wheelchair

A student from Lahore University of Management and Sciences (LUMS), Faaiz Arbab, who is currently enrolled in the MS Electrical Engineering program has developed Pakistan’s first voice-operated wheelchair. He has named it “GOBEE”.

GOBEE was first revealed last year and awarded the Best Consumer Product Design Award 2018 by National Design Awards (NDA) Pakistan. This is the upgraded version of the previous one with more advanced technology and comfortable seating.

PTI MNA Asad Umar tweeted to laud the efforts of Arbab. He wrote, “This is just the kind of work that needs to be projected”. He also shared the video of the wheelchair with Arbab and his team.

It is not only waterproof and anti-rusting but also has the facility of alloy rim wheels with an anti-sweat sofa seat. The objective for building this is to help disabled people with technology. Arbab ingeniously found a solution for them. The wheelchair has many features including Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and remote control with the range of over 100 feet.

The advanced version also has long-life battery power with two batteries of 18Ah each with the drive power up to 40 km per charge, Bright LED lights for active maneuvering at night and emergency stop and call button. Arbab developed this wheelchair in collaboration with the National Incubation Center (NIC) Lahore and AYEco.

Faaiz Arbab is also the founder of Ayub Yaqoob Engineering Company (AYECo) and has already started distributing GOBEE in the Pakistani market. In the future, the product may also be exported after checking all compliance with International Health Regulations (IHR) which is a division of the World Health Organization (WHO).

Faaiz Arbab started working on GOBEE in 2015. He shared his views with the press; “There are a lot of wheelchairs in the market, but the entire idea that I had was to make sure that the person using GOBEE would be completely independent in real-time, and there are no wheelchairs in the current market that make a user completely independent.”