Suvit

Inspiration

Getting hurt is never part of the plan. But when it happens (think a twisted ankle, a bad fall, a surgery that leaves you couch-bound, etc.), suddenly the simplest things become a struggle. And the cruel irony is that getting to help often hurts just as much as the injury itself.

That question stuck with us. Why do we always have to go to the help? Why can't the help come to us? That's where we came up with the idea for Suvit.

What it does

Suvit is a RC car that's been repurposed for delivering emergency medical equipment to people who have been injured. A user opens the Suvit app and clicks for help. At this point, a signal is sent to Suvit, who begins autonomously traveling to the user, carrying potentially lifesaving first aid kits, an AED, or whatever else the user might need.

How we built it

We took an old remote controlled car and took it apart, removing the original microcontroller and replacing it with our own Raspberry Pi. Using different components (like a LiDAR sensors, an external camera, and a pixhawk), we were able to extend the original functionality of the remote control car, making it autonomous.

Challenges we ran into

The biggest issue we ran into was managing our power supply. While the battery we had originally could supply high voltage, it could only do so at a low current. On surfaces with high friction, the RC Car couldn't overcome static friction. In response, we made a makeshift power supply by combining three batteries in parallel, solving our current issue while keeping voltage in a safe range. It was exciting to use our physics knowledge to making things work even with hardware limitations.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Making it to the end of the hackathon
Successfully taking apart an RC car and enhancing it with various components and functionalities.
Meeting new people and learning about them and their projects!

What's next for Suvit

We hope to continue improving navigation. Features like voice commands would be beneficial as well, where Suvit could actually explain what to do with the device given to the user. We also hope to improve communication between medical teams and injured patients through device speakers.