Solar Powered Self Transportation launched by Mr. Kartick Kulkarni IEEE SIGHT, California, USA

AVCE chairman handing over the vehicle keys

As part of our efforts to improve the socio-economic life of people, a Solar Powered Self Transportation(SPST) has been designed and developed at AVCE for the Women Fish Vendors. It was launched by Mr. Karthick Kulkarni IEEE SIGHT, California, USA on the 12th of December, 2015.

Solar Powered Self Transportation (SPST) for Women Fish Vendors is a three wheeler vehicle which can be operated in solar power with a capacity of carrying 3 persons including the rider and their three vessels of fish. It is a new model named SPTDEC1215 which is developed and designed by the students and teachers of Annai Vailankanni College of Engineering (AVCE). It is one of the project components of the Project of IEEE Artisanal Deep Sea Fishers SIGHT, “Technology Adoption for Reduction of Vulnerability in Fishing”. The major supporters for making the model SPTDEC1215 are ADSGAF, IEEE SIGHT, BOBP-IGO, AVCE and the student team of AVCE.

Mr. Kartick test driving the SOLAR vehicle

AVCE Solar Tri-Cycle Team members

This project mainly focuses to overcome the difficulties that are faced by the fisher women for vending fishes in various places. Fish being a perishable product, requires fast transportation from the market place to the desired destination. The fish vending women face a lot of difficulties in transporting because they are being prohibited from using public transport. So they use other modes of transport such as Load autos, Mini Lorries. They have to afford at very high cost. To minimize the difficulties faced by the women fish vendors this Solar Powered Tricycle was designed and fabricated.The Solar tricycle operates by means of a bidirectional motor which is powered by batteries. The batteries are charged by means of a Polycrystalline Solar Panel which is placed at the top of the vehicle. On rest condition the batteries can be charged by connecting it to a electricity powered charging station. This vehicle has another advantage that is it is easy to drive by women because it does not contain any gearing mechanism such as gears and clutches. It consists of a throttle which manages the required power supply to the motor when accelerated. It is Eco-friendly because it does not cause pollution and has the ability to travel even through narrow places.