Karkala: Car without Steering - Nitte Eng Students' Innovation
from Shekhar Ajekar
for Daijiworld Media Network - Karkala (GA)
Karkala, Jun 14: The fascination for cars is built into a man’s DNA. It was no different for four students of mechanical engineering department of N M A M Institute of Technology, Nitte. They were fascinated by the newly-developed concept cars and wanted to make a contribution to the automobile field.
The immediate idea that conceived was “Make a car and drive it like a plane”, thus was born “The joystick car.”
The students, namely, Mohammed Suheb, Sayyed Jasim, Rachan M Satishchandra and Mohsin Ahmed Khateeb set-off to work under the guidance of senior professor Mallikappa known for his technical knowledge and his selfless help and gratitude towards the students.
The main idea was to drive a car single handedly by a device (Joystick) thereby eliminating the steering wheel, accelerator, clutch as well as the brake pedal.
It is a two-seater car, can be driven from either side. Pull on the Joystick results in acceleration, push results in braking effect, whereas turning the Joystick on left or right results in steering for respective sides. The car is completely mechanically-operated, weighs about 200kgs, is gearless with self-start, reverse, handbrake facility and is a complete “show stopper” in the looks department and it has own itself “The Best Project Award for the year 2008”. It also includes all the basic essentials of a car. This project is under process for patent.
The students acknowledge the encouragement offered by the chairman of NET N V Hedge, principal Dr S Y Kulkarni and HoD Dr Sriram.