IIT Madras unveils new 8.5-kg wheelchair that permits independence

It weighs 8.5 kilograms, is minimalistic, and is available in 14 colors. IIT Madras’ newest innovation is YD One, which it claims is India’s lightest energetic rigid-frame wheelchair. Born out of the joint efforts of TTK Centre for Rehabilitation Research and Device Development and THRYV Mobility, a totally incubated startup inside IIT Madras, the machine was launched in Chennai on Wednesday (July 17, 2025).

The machine has a single body product of aerospace-grade materials. It might be totally customised and is out there in sizes from 13 inches to 18 inches. So, what’s so particular about it? “With the monoframe, minimalistic design, you slap 120 kg on it and make it run by way of two lakh cycles of double drum check, after which drop it for six,666 occasions for drop check; the machine can not actually have a small crack or scratch. That is precision engineering and progressive geometry,” Justin Jesudas, founder and CEO, THRYV Mobility, asserts.

Most wheelchairs available in the market have been heavy and hospital grade, which have been unfit for neighborhood use, he mentioned. “This was the rationale why you discover this inhabitants largely invisible, regardless of being excessive in numbers. We wished to alter this narrative,” mentioned Mr. Justin, who’s himself a wheelchair consumer for the previous 15 years.

Twenty beneficiaries, lots of them para-athletes, got YD One wheelchairs as a part of a CSR initiative of Trimble, a Silicon valley-based industrial expertise firm. For the beneficiaries, it meant enabling bike journey, simpler and longer journeys, larger portability, and manoeuvrability.

Speaking about his expertise with the struggles of troopers injured and impaired within the line of responsibility on the launch, Surgeon Vice Admiral Anupam Kapur, Director General, Hospital Services (Armed Forces), mentioned that freedom and independence meant various things to completely different folks. “Independence is just not merely private, it’s social, financial, and technological. It is the liberty of a visually impaired scholar to navigate a campus independently; it’s the means of a stroke survivor to speak along with his or her family members; it’s the proper of a rural lady to entry digital well being; and it’s the energy of a veteran amputee to stroll unassisted once more if potential. In the armed forces, we see this pursuit of independence not simply in idea, we see it occurring on a regular basis.”

V. Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras, mentioned that the machine could seem easy but it surely required deep software of arithmetic, physics, mechanical engineering, and materials sciences to be constructed. IIT Madras’ innovation push is symbolised by the 400-odd patents the establishment filed previously one yr that have been closely deep tech and centered on fixing the issues in society, he added.

Ravinder Singh, scientist, Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR), mentioned that ICMR was instrumental in creating the National Centre for Assistive Health Technology at a number of establishments, together with IIT Madras, enabling analysis and improvement in assistive expertise. It plans to undertake extra initiatives to advertise and enhance accessibility and affordability of assistive merchandise by way of well being techniques in India.

Manish Anand, Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, IIT Madras, who was the venture coordinator, mentioned that the machine was co-designed with customers and with inputs from clinicians as effectively.