NAIT-based project inspired by Glenrose Rehabilitative Hospital attracts federal funding
How do you solve a problem that you might forget needs solving?
You leave it to an innovator like Nubal Manhas, a double NAIT grad (Bachelor of Technology in Management ’25, Computer Engineering Technology ’23) and a research student at NAIT’s Centre for Sensors and System Integration.
Manhas has invented an automated braking system for rolling walkers. When stopped, such mobility aids also serve as seats and as assistance for standing up. But lots of people who use walkers – there are almost half-a-million in use in Canada – can forget to apply those brakes, leading to accidents.
“We have a lot of older patients. There’s dementia. There’s cognitive decline. There is going to be a lot of forgetfulness with the walkers,” says Tod Vandenberg, project engineer at the Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital, which has a research and innovation team. It looks for new solutions to medical problems; over the years, many of those have come from NAIT students.
In this case, Vandenberg’s team sent the BTech program a list of possible problems to tackle, including this one. None of the rolling walkers currently available have automated braking systems – an ideal solution to forgetfulness.
In his final semester, Manhas and a group of colleagues picked up that challenge and ran with it. Now, with their encouragement, he’s gathering speed on the project as he seeks to refine it and move it closer to possible commercialization, with the help of funding from Technology Readiness Level-Up program, a national initiative aimed at helping researchers find their footing as entrepreneurs.
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A surprising challenge
With memory being the problem, Manhas knew sensors – the key to automation in this instance – were the solution.
The first step was picking the type that would do the best job of detecting the user, and keeping the walker from getting away when they weren’t nearby or anchored when they used it to try to stand up.
“There are quite a few different ways to measure distance,” says Manhas. “Lasers, soundwaves, infrared. One of the ways we didn’t want to do was with cameras, for privacy reasons.”
Manhas settled on an acoustic sensor, which uses ultrasonic sound waves. When the sensor in his prototype detects that a user is more than 40 centimetres away from the walker, the sensor triggers the brake.
Not that it’s quite so simple.
“Coming up with something that is strong enough to activate the brake is a surprising challenge!” says Manhas. “There’s a lot of physics involved.”
Manhas’s first idea was a system that would directly press the brake pads onto the wheels. This needed too much force, so he developed a pulley system that activates the brake handles.
It involves bespoke 3D-printed and off-the-shelf components. His computing background gave him enough familiarity with electronics to get started then learn on the go.
While Manhas demonstrated that this combination of ultrasonic sensor and pulley system could work, there are many steps between proof of concept and bringing a product to market.
“At the point of Nubal’s final presentation, this device had the sensors, but it was a lot of wires all over the place,” says Vandenburg. “All the electronics were in a Tupperware container. It needed some fine tuning. But the concept was good.”
Initiative and energy
This fall, Manhas secured help for that fine tuning. Technology Readiness Level-Up (TRL, a program run by Labs4 on behalf of the funder, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada’s Lab2Market initiative), provides a stipend and connects inventors with resources and mentors. It runs for four months and is supported by 38 colleges and universities, including NAIT, meaning that Manhas can access support at his workplace.
After graduation this year, he started as a technician at NAIT, where his supervisor, Dr. Quamrul Huda, does double duty as TRL mentor.
“He’s quite creative and he has some vision looking forward,” says Huda of Manhas. “He has the potential. He is young – just coming out from school, lots of initiative and energy.”
Manhas continues to develop the brake system with suggestions from Huda and other TRL mentors. He’s looking at adding more sensors for greater accuracy and redundancy, and at refining the design into a single piece that can be quickly attached or removed from a walker.
Manhas knows that getting the brake system to market could take years. But no matter the outcome, says Huda, “I can see him in a technical career, or he may end up as an innovator and entrepreneur to form his own company.”
Manhas isn’t quite sure what will come next for himself or for his invention. But whatever happens, it will involve developing solutions.
“I want to be making something,” he says. “I like building stuff, whether that’s my own ideas or helping someone else with theirs. That’s something I want to do and will keep doing for as long as I can.”