Kangan Roo wins 'New Inventors' award
27 February 2006
The Kangan Roo.
A radical new invention designed and built at Kangan Batman TAFE has hopped to prominence by winning the Episode Award of the ABC television program "New Inventors" last Wednesday.
The ‘Kangan Roo’ is an amazing electric wheelchair that could revolutionise the mobility of people with disabilities.
The design is the brainchild of Kangan Batman TAFE employee, Colin Johanson, who became a quadriplegic with limited hand use, after a hang gliding accident 28 years ago. The prototype was built by Kangan Batman third year fabrication apprentices in the Aviation and Engineering departments and their teachers at the TAFE’s Broadmeadows campus.
“We entered the Kangan Roo in the New Inventors to give it wider publicity and to see how we stacked up in general competition,” said Colin Johanson. “We are convinced we are on to a winner here, and it's great to have it confirmed by the New Inventors judges making it an Episode winner.”
And it wasn't just the ABC judges who were impressed by the Kangan Roo. The wheelchair was also awarded the New Inventor's People's Choice Episode Winner, with a massive 62.5 per cent of the viewers' votes. The Kangan Roo is now eligible for the New Inventors Grand Final Award 2006.
Colin introduced the wheelchair on the TV program and demonstrated its excellent manoeuvrability on a very tight catwalk laid in the TV studio, complete with a step and a “broken edged gutter” for the wheelchair to negotiate, which he did with ease. TV crews also filmed the Kangan Roo in action at Colin's Williamstown house, jumping up a kerb, and at top speed on a nearby street.
Built of aluminium, the Kangan Roo has a radical frame design that allows the chair to be adjusted in wheelbase length while in use. The frame can be shortened for indoor tight manoeuvring and lengthened for outdoor cruising speeds of up to 10 kph.
The project has generated interest from commercial companies and a US University who have already developed motors and new controllers for this next wheelchair. A special website, www.kangan.edu.au/kanganroo, gives a detailed account of how the wheelchair was designed and built, and its range of innovative features.
The Kangan Roo operates with a NiMH battery weighing only seven and a half kilograms, a quarter of the weight of a regular wheelchair battery system. Combined with the lightweight aluminium frame the wheelchair weighs approximately 48 kg (including batteries), over 80 kilos less than a normal powerful electric wheelchair.
The designer, Colin Johanson, who lives in Williamstown, works at Kangan Batman as the Computer Aided Design and IT Co-ordinator. After he entered into an agreement with Kangan Batman, the Institute took out a Provisional Patent in 2004, for the design of the electric wheelchair. In 2005 it was converted to a Patent Convention Treaty (PCT), giving another 18 months world-wide protection on the design.
