The Betaboost
By: The engineer hub
1. Elevator Pitch:
Our product, the Betaboost, is a modular product that powers manual wheelchairs electrically. Essentially, the Betaboost consists of two brushed motors with rubber wheels that can be fitted to most manual wheelchairs on the market and power the rear wheels. This design effectively gets round problems with both manual and electrical wheelchairs, as well as outcompeting similar products in terms of cost, convenience, and portability. Therefore, we aim to provide the experience of an electric wheelchair to those who can only afford a manual one. We plan to promote the product through online platforms and partnerwith healthcare organizations to sell it to as many wheelchair users in China as possible. The current cost to make one Betaboost is 400 CNY and we plan to have the price around 600CNY. The funds will therefore come from the sales itself as well as a combination of angel investors, crowdfunding, and grants.
2. Team:
Our team originates from our school's club, Engineerhub, and the president is Jing Muhan. Zhu wenxi is also the president of the school’ s business club. Two members of the team had participated in the Conrad Challenge last year and then decided to lead team members to participate. Ren is responsible for the design and the website building along with Jing. Sun and Jing production and test of the project. Sun provides the team with manual wheelchair, which facilitates the construction and test of our products. Also, Zhu and Chen are responsible for market research, commercial popularizing and business strategy. In the nutshell, the strengths of each of us can be brought into play inside. Grandparents of us can help test and improve our build. Besides, we all have
experience in engineering projects because we are from the engineering club. Our resources come from the linkage with the school business club.
3. Opportunity:
Manual wheelchairs are commonly used by patients who are seriously injured. It is obvious that there are a few major inconveniences using the manual wheelchairs. Their poor transmission design leads to poor trafficability and is extremely tiring. First, they have a poor trafficability passing through pits and slopes. The user must exert strong strength to pass through the pit and slopes by themselves. Otherwise, they will have to ask for help from others. The Betaboost solves this problem through its powerful brushed motors. Brushed motors have a torque that is strong enough to pass through most obstacles in real life. Patients who are using a wheelchair should save their energy for healing. While, as I mentioned before, the use of manual wheelchairs is tiring. Manual wheelchairs can only be powered by the arms of the users. It requires strength and endurance. Moreover, the handles for driving the wheels by hand are often dirty and damaged. The use of manual wheelchairs affects the healing of patients negatively. As a result, most patients cannot move by themselves in a will chair, a helper is always required. With Betaboost, the patients can control the wheelchair by themselves through a small controller. They will be able to travel to all places without having somebody to help, without consuming strength and energy. More personal space and freedom improves the patients' mental health and mood.
4. Innovation:
The Betaboost is a modular product that powers most manual wheelchairs electrically.
The Betaboost consists mainly of two brushed motors with rubber wheels. The motors are mounted on a part of the wheelchair we name the bottom crossbar. This is a pair of front-facing horizontal bars on the bottom of most wheelchairs that goes between the rear wheels and front wheels. The motors are mounted sideways on an L-shaped rack with the wheels sticking out and making contact with the rear wheels on the wheelchair. The rack is attached to a series of clamps that hold on to the crossbar, enabling it to slide forwards and backwards. It also contains two slots along which the clamps can also slide, allowing the rack to slide left and right. We have included these features to give greater compatibility as the distance between the crossbar and the wheel is usually different on various wheelchairs. It is worth pointing out here that the position adjustments are done by loosening and tightening screws on the current prototype, but we will fit a more convenient clamp that can be operated with a lever, similar to those on a bicycle saddle. Having assembled the motor, one only needs to attach the battery to the bottom of the seat, and the control system to the armrest with some Velcro tape.
The Betaboost is able to combine the advantages of both manual wheelchairs and electrical ones without having their disadvantages. It also beats its close substitutes in terms of mainly portability and cost, as we will now explain.
The most basic type of a wheelchair is a manual one. It is cheap, light, and can fold up and be stored in the boot of a car. However, it is usually hard to use such as wheelchair because the hand ring is generally smaller than the rear wheels, meaning the force required is slightly larger. Besides, at the weight of usually 10 to 15 kg, a manual wheelchair can be quite a handful on rough surfaces such as lawns. The most obvious solution, then, would be an electric wheelchair. However, they are highly inconvenient as they are significantly heavier (around 30 kg and more), larger, and do not fold up as much as manual wheelchairs do. They are also significantly more expensive, with prices ranging from two to six thousand CNY. Besides, when the battery runs out, one is unable to move the wheelchair due to the resistance in the motors. Indeed, there are already modular products that can be fitted to manual wheelchairs, but they are generally large and complicated to assemble.
The Betaboost, however, gets around all these problems. It costs only 400 CNY to make, about the same as the price of a basic manual wheelchair, and we expect this number to fall significantly during the mass-production process. Our product shines in terms of convenience. All the components can be laid out in the space less than a piece of A4 paper without piling up, and can be fully assembled within five minutes. It is also very light, with a weight of about 4kg, taken up mostly by the battery (which can become lighter once we upgrade it and use lithium ones). Our product has a reasonable amount of power: 50w on flat grounds and up to 200w on rough terrain. It has a top speed around that of walking (3 to 4 metres per second) and can run for one to two hours at full power. In reality, this time will be significantly longer as one does not always need the full 200w. Therefore, the Betaboost is able to provide the electrical-wheelchair experience for the manual wheelchair user at a vastly cheaper price and far greater convenience and portability compared with similar products. It is also worth noting that one does not have to worry about the battery running out as he/she can simply disconnect the motor from the rear wheels on the wheelchair once it does and resume the journey on a manual wheelchair.
In order to protect the proprietary aspects of the Betaboost, we plan to first apply for a patent so that those making similar products as us have to pay an extra fee. Besides, we also plan to promote the product and especially is name in various forms, such as on the internet and making wheelchair-themed lectures, so that we would form brand recognition with the consumers and make the name Betaboost seem special.
5. Validation and Progress:
In the validation phase of our innovation, we have successfully passed the rigorous review by the Shanghai Mechanical Society, marking a significant milestone in our project's credibility. Under the mentorship of our advisors, we have made substantial progress in the detailed design of our motorized wheelchair enhancement. To validate our innovation, we conducted a series of real-world tests with a prototype model. Over the weekend, we took our motorized wheelchair to a park to assess its performance. We tested the wheelchair's battery life by driving it on various terrains, including grass and gravel, to evaluate its torque capabilities.
In terms of progress, we have carefully considered the installation position of the motor. Initially, we considered mounting it behind the backrest, but due to structural integrity concerns and limited space with a backrest, we moved on to explore other options. We settled on the bottom crossbar, a common feature on all wheelchairs, devoid of any decorative elements, providing a solid and unobtrusive mounting point. For the motor selection, we deliberated between brushed and brushless options. We opted for a brushed 775 motor, which, despite its lower speed compared to brushless alternatives, was chosen for its compact size and lightweight design, which aligns with our requirement for minimal weight and reduced power consumption. The design of the motor mount was another critical aspect of our development. We engineered an L-shaped bracket that can be easily adjusted to fit various wheelchair models. To ensure the mount is lightweight yet sturdy, we incorporated slots in the bracket and designed a detachable support plate for easy storage and convenience. Our research led us to similar clamping mechanisms used in motorcycles and bicycle assist devices, which we found to be compatible with our wheels. This discovery has been instrumental in refining our design.
For the control system, we have retained both the intuitive dual-joystick design for an immersive control experience and the convenient single-joystick design for ease of use. The dual-joystick setup allows for independent control of each wheel, similar to the control schemes used in traditional manual wheelchairs, which are known for their familiarity. The single-joystick design, on the other hand, offers a more straightforward approach, providing a simpler interface for those who prefer it. This dual approach caters to a wider range of user preferences and abilities, ensuring that our wheelchair can be operated effectively by users with varying levels of dexterity and experience. Our familiarity with Arduino boards through school projects has been invaluable in programming the motor control system, ensuring that our wheelchair's operation is both intuitive and user-friendly. This has allowed us to integrate an intuitive gesture-based control system that pairs well with our motorized wheelchair, providing a seamless user experience.
6. Market
The target customers are elderly individuals, people with physical disabilities, and those who struggle with long-distance manual wheelchair use on rough terrains. A key priority for these customers is affordability, as the high cost of electric wheelchairs often limits their access. Portability is also crucial, as users of manual wheelchairs require products that can be easily transported or stored, and they value convenience in both setup and use.
The size of the opportunity is substantial. At of the end of 2023, the population aged 60 and above in China was 297 million, accounting for 21.1% of the total population. According to data from the National Rehabilitation Assistive Devices Research Center, only 10% to 15% of people in need have obtained wheelchair adaptations. This indicates a significant gap in the market for affordable, accessible devices, particularly for those unable to afford traditional electric wheelchairs.
In this market, buyer may not always be the same as user. Often, the purchaser is a caregiver, family member, or even a rehabilitation center. This difference between the buyer and the user highlights the importance of reaching both groups in marketing and distribution efforts.
The industry ecosystem consists of several key players. Wheelchair manufacturers are central, as they produce the base products. Healthcare providers also play a vital role in the ecosystem, as they may recommend and distribute mobility aids. Technology providers supply the components, such as motors and batteries, that make the Betaboost function, while distributors and retailers, including online platforms and medical supply stores, are critical for bringing the product to consumers. Regulatory bodies also play a role, ensuring the product meets safety and quality standards, especially as it falls within the medical device category. The overall ecosystem is interconnected, with each segment contributing to the accessibility and distribution of devices like Betaboost.
7. Competition:
Electrical wheelchairs are commonly chosen by the users who wants to improve the convenience of their wheelchair. Electrical wheelchairs do have great performance and convenience and is able to help users travel to any place they want to be. However, electrical wheelchairs do have two significant disadvantage. First, their price. Most electric wheelchair have a price higher than 1500 RMB. It can be much more higher for high-end types. Betaboost has a price much lower than 1500 RMB and it has the basic important functions of a electric wheelchair. Users who wants their wheelchairs to move easily would choose Betaboost. Secondly, most electrical wheelchairs are heavy and large in size. It would be inconvenient to carry it around. For example, an electric wheelchair might not be able to fit in the trunk of a car if the user wants to travel for long distance. In comparison, a wheelchair with Betaboost has the exact same size as a manual wheelchair. Betaboost does not take any extra space, and is light enough to carry around. Moreover, in extreme cases, you can take off the Betaboost parts on a wheel chair at any time if you need because it can be detached easily.
There are also some other types of wheelchair modification kit in the market. One common design is adding a wheel at the back of the wheelchair to drive it electrically. The major flaw of this design is that it can not run in a high speed. Also, because there is a extra wheel driving, the mobility of the wheelchair might be affected. Such as an increase in the turning radius. Betaboost modifies the original wheels, the stability and mobility of the wheelchair will not be affected.
8: Go-to-Market
To attract and sell to customers, the Betaboost will emphasize its affordability, portability, and ease of use through online platforms, social media, and healthcare events. Demonstrations in hospitals, rehabilitation centers, and elderly care homes will allow potential customers to experience the product’s benefits firsthand. The best initial customers are healthcare institutions and caregivers, as they serve large numbers of individuals needing mobility aids. Partnering with these organizations will help build credibility and reach target users like the elderly and people with disabilities.
A combination of direct sales and strategic partnerships is the key to market entry. Direct sales through online platforms will reach individual buyers, while partnerships with healthcare providers and rehabilitation centers will facilitate wider distribution. As the product gains recognition, licensing or distribution agreements with medical device companies could further expand the market. In this way, we can obtain useful feedback while also allowing control of our product.
9. Business Model:
The key revenue streams for the Betaboost innovation will primarily come from the sale of the product itself. The pricing model will be set at an affordable level, aimed at making the Betaboost a cost-effective solution for users who cannot afford traditional electric wheelchairs.
In terms of costs, the main expenditures will include raw materials, motor and battery procurement, assembly, and labor costs. Now our cost of producing one unit of this device is approximately 400 RMB, excluding the labor costs, which is highly competitive compared to electric wheelchairs that typically range from 2000 to 6000 CNY. With mass production, our cost would be even lower due to economies of scale, approximately 250 RMB. However, this economies of scale can only be achieved with time.
Therefore, our pricing would be 600 RMB for each unit of our product, affordable for most of the Chinese families. Meanwhile, we can guarantee we have 50% profit.
10. Fundraising:
We plan to pursue funding through a combination of angel investors, crowdfunding, and grants. Angel investors will provide the necessary capital for product development and scaling, especially for inexperienced students like us. Crowdfunding will allow us to build a community around the product and generate early sales. Grants from health and mobility-focused foundations could further support our mission to make mobility solutions accessible.