GOBEE, Pakistan's 1st smart electric wheelchair, which has been designed and manufactured by LUMS MS Electrical Engineering student, Faaiz Arbab was launched by AYECo Pvt. Ltd. on July 5, 2018 at the National Incubation Center (NIC), at the Syed Babar Ali School of Science and Engineering (SBASSE), Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS).
AYECo Pvt. Ltd. is Pakistan's 1st electric wheelchair manufacturing company and GOBEE is its award holder, landmark product. GOBEE will significantly bring down the prices of electric wheelchairs in the domestic market. It will also break into an untapped market as most of the electric wheelchairs currently are imported from abroad most noticeably China.
Faaiz Arbab has worked tirelessly on GOBEE since 2015. “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,” shared Arbab. Between 2015 and 2018, Arbab kept working to promote this project, even when there wasn’t any funding for the project. NIC was instrumental in realising Arbab's efforts of securing funding for his project.
Sharing his thoughts about GOBEE and the vision for the future of innovation in the country and more notably LUMS, Project Director of the National Incubation Center (NIC), Mr. Faisal Jalil Sherjan said, “LUMS will not only produce job seekers but job creators. We have to encourage the young, and take them further. This is going to take away a lot of burden from the local market because wheelchairs now will not have to be imported. GOBEE combines ease of use and functionality.”
The wheelchair is automated through the use of a smart-phone, and many people asked Arbab about why a traditional joystick was not used. “In conventional wheelchairs, the joystick is one of the most sensitive and expensive parts. This is what led me to remove the joystick, to increase the functionality and make the product more affordable,” said Arbab.
GOBEE is not only water resistant, and anti-rusting, but it has alloy rim wheels combined with an anti-sweat technology sofa seat. The smart wheelchair offers Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and a remote control which goes over the range of a 100 ft. Arbab aims to assist people with disabilities through technology and at SBASSE, LUMS he was provided full support to realise his aim.
