What it does
For people susceptible to illness from insect borne diseases, Indra is a insect control device powered with renewable energy that kills insects improving health. It stores electricity, increasing their well being by being a source of light and power.
Your inspiration
Mosquito borne diseases (MBDs) are a major public health problem in India. 65% of the population at risk of becoming infected with malaria in South-East Asia reside in India. Between August and September 2015, there were 2,818 cases of dengue fever in Gujarat. The continued incidence of MBDs warrants a proactive approach for their prevention. The objective of this project is to provide people an inexpensive and safe way to decrease the amount of mosquitos and other pests where they work and live. Mosquitos are a major vector for disease in India. Existing methods can be inconvenient and toxic. This can improve their overall well-being.
How it works
The user needs a way of keeping mosquitos and other pests away, that is cheap, easy to use and portable. The user needs lighting and battery charging that does not rely on centralised power. The solution will be a simple design, using local recycled materials and will kill insects. It will be manufactured locally and be able to survive local conditions. It will possibly incorporate ways to provide extra light and battery charging capability. The device is charged using wind and solar power. It uses this power to attract insects with UV light and eradicate them with an electrified mesh.
Design process
Prototyping was a time consuming process but enabled me to come up with a final design that was much more refined and successful as a working product. The process involved building approximations of different parts of the concept in order to iteratively work through aspects of the design in order to find out what worked, what didn’t and how to fix the issues that arose. Researching the electronics that were necessary for the design meant I learnt a lot about electronic components and renewable energy which will probably be useful knowledge to have in the future. Creating a physical housing and working out how to fit all the necessary components into it allowed me to work out details of manufacturing and assembly which I incorporated into my final design and engineering documentation. These details would have been much more difficult to resolve successfully without having a physical model to test and work with. It also increased my familiarity with 3D modelling software and the 3D printer hardware in the workshop. It takes effort to take a 3D model and successfully generate a 3D print.
How it is different
For vendors in India who are susceptible to getting sick from insect borne diseases my design is a insect control device powered with renewable energy that kills insects improving the vendors health. It also stores electricity, increasing their well being by being a source of light and power and potentially also allows them to make extra income by selling excess energy generated to customers. It will be locally manufactured and make use of recycled materials from e-waste.
Future plans
My ongoing research will be focused on local materials and manufacturing technologies, insect borne disease prevention and ways of reusing and recycling waste material found locally. I will also be testing power generation techniques, electric circuits and battery storage and charging.
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