My Role: Team Lead (Design)

ASME's e-Human Powered Vehicle Challenge (e-HPVC) is an engineering design and innovation the competition that gives students the opportunity to network and apply engineering principles through the design, fabrication, and racing of human-powered vehicles.

My purpose of creating ‘Sharkha’ was to build an upgraded and better version of our previous attempts. My intention has always been to create a commercially viable product that would create a buzz around the vehicle and prove its worth by providing comfort, aesthetics, and performance in the Indian market and roads.

Design objectives –

To ensure the rider's absolute safety while developing a cost-effective and environmentally friendly vehicles for the Indian market.

Design a hybrid vehicle that can handle the bumpy city roads in both traffic and free-riding situations

To create a bio-inspired design that strikes a balance between the work of nature and human knowledge to connect us back with our surroundings.

Machines have played a vital role in the daily life of human beings. The primary motive behind any innovation has always been to reduce human effort and maximize output. Human Power has been the most reliable and trusted energy source one can use. Inspired by our college’s previous attempt, The LNM Institute of Information Technology returned in 2022 with a more innovative, durable, fast, and safe human-powered vehicle, SHARKHA, to compete in e-HPVC 2022.

My Vehicle is a semi-recumbent, 3-wheel tadpole design with rear-wheel drive, which I chose due to its ability to provide high speed and high stability. AISI 4130 Alloy Steel has been chosen as the frame material as it provides high durability and ease of manufacturing. We figured that the Drive-train should consist of 9 Speed Gearbox. The Fairing of the Vehicle is made entirely of fiberglass, which is cost-efficient and lightweight. My Vehicle’s design is inspired by the body of a shark which makes the vehicle highly aerodynamic.

PS: This final render was done on blender 3D.

The Vehicle was loaded with innovations to improve its safety and performance. The Octagon-shaped RPS, with an added rectangular support for head protection, drastically improves the rider's safety. My team then implemented an extra pulley gear in the drive train, which helps keep the chain tight and prevents it from coming in the rider's way. We have also provided an adjustable handlebar for the comfort of our rider.

As this was our college’s second human-powered vehicle project, I had some experienced and decisive people in my team who guided the rest to channel their energies and skills. So instead of starting from scratch, we had the previous year’s design which helped us to approach this year's vehicle in a better way; whether it be stability, safety, comfort, maneuverability, or speed, we excel in almost everything.

'Design of Human Powered Vehicles' by Mark Archibald, 'A systematic approach to human-powered vehicle design with an emphasis on providing guidelines for mentoring students by Alexander S. Whitman, 'Jetrike.com' for ergonomics, and 'Studies on the Dynamics and Stability of Bicycles' by Pradipta Basu-Mandal were among the research materials and books I referred to frequently.

The team faced a significant issue because no facilities were available to test our concepts in real-world scenarios during the pandemic. We tested suitable angles for the seat at home, visualized ourselves riding different iterations of the vehicle, and used online resources and research data to arrive at conclusions about the vehicle's configuration, drive train, seat angles, and many other factors using sheer grit, hard work, and innovative methods. We also solicited feedback from fellow cyclists on what features they wanted to see on a bike. We studied the difficulties they encountered on Indian roads in an urban setting, and we designed our vehicle to drive in that environment easily.

Then I looked at current vehicle layouts to see their advantages and disadvantages and what I might learn from them. All this study assisted us in better comprehending textbook topics by applying them to real-life situations.

My college participated last year in the HPVC 2021, which was held online, and that experience has come in handy immensely in making this vehicle. The objective of this year’s vehicle was not only to reach the standard set by the previous vehicle but also to improve its performance and present a successor in actual terms. The market surveys conducted during the development of the previous year's vehicle helped us save time and money.

We structured the entire procedure into various stages to guarantee that the vehicle report was finished on time. Each element served as a milestone with its deadline. Starting on the 29th of December with the formation of the team and the initial briefing, we had 39 days to finish the vehicle and its report from the ground up. We made up for our lack of time and expertise through effective management, execution, and synergistic collaboration. We organized the entire team into four subgroups from the very first meeting, namely Design team, E-V team, Analysis team, and Content team. During the daily meetings, each subgroup worked in tandem, doing analysis and research in their particular areas while keeping each other updated with changes and modifications.

During the design of Sharkha, all the Product Design Specification (PDS) criteria and all ASME HPVC Asia Pacific constraints were taken care of and produced the best possible results. After making the vital amendments to the design, Sharkha successfully passed all the inspections and tests, such as strength, environmental impacts, cost, etc. This also meets our expectations of making our vehicle more reliable, stable, manufacturable, comfortable, and cost-efficient than the last attempt. As a team, we have developed a vehicle that incorporates all the innovative ideas and concepts in the human-powered vehicle.

We think our project has the caliber to be a mass-produced product that can affect people's daily lives by providing a more comfortable and cleaner source of transport. With necessary improvements and design changes, we can pitch our design to the government as pollution is one of the country's main concerns. With suitable manufacture, our vehicle can be sold in metropolitan cities. Government can also grant subsidies for buying this vehicle as they do with EVs and other hybrid vehicles.