Helping vendors keep vegetables cool and fresh

By NT Correspondent

Mysuru: Naveen H.V, a son of a farmer, along with three of his classmates, has designed a low-cost cooling solution for vegetable vendors.

These students are from Vidyavardhaka College of Engineering. The device designed by Naveen, Shubham Sain, Supreeth S, Vivek Chandrashekhar will help vendors keep their vegetables fresh during summer.

Vegetables will remain fresh if they are kept at a temperature between 5 and 10 degree centigrade. The students have designed the cart in such a way that the temperature could be kept between 0 and 10 degree centigrade.

Naveen who headed the team said: “Although the problem statement was already given to us, we had to research about the problems faced by the vegetable vendors from all sources possible. After this we were able to come up with a feasible and convenient solution for the vegetable vendors. We took suggestions from the experts based on which we built an air cooled chamber and sourced solar energy for the electricity so that the machine is self-reliant. The present model requires the vendors to charge it once in a day at home after which the system depends on solar energy for electricity requirements.

Although the cart is expected to cost upto Rs. 52,292, it is way more cheaper compared to the carts with coolers available in the market. The existing model’s cooling system in the market costs more than one lakh.

Vivek Chandrashekhar spoke about the team’s plans to improvise the cart further. “We are planning to improvise this further with pressure sensors which will help generate energy from the pressure generated when the vendor peddles the cart. Also we are planning to make the cart more energy efficient by making it like an electric two wheeler, include more solar panels and increase storage capacity of the cart.”

“We have currently used smaller wheels for the cart which makes it a bit hard for an individual to move it as it requires him to apply more strength. We would want to install 19 inch wheels which will make it easy to pedal the cart” added Supreeth, another student who is part of the team. He also shared the experience of developing this cart. “The experience of developing this cart was just as hard as birthing a baby. We had to manage to balance between our exams and developing this cart. This gave us a great deal of learning with regards to managing projects under difficult circumstances. We even had an instance where we wrote an exam from morning till afternoon and were left with just an hour to attend the event to present the project. And we are extremely happy that we managed to do it successfully. We are excited to work on any such projects if we get a chance” he said.

Prof. Sadashiv Gowda, Principal at Vidyavardhaka College of Engineering said, “It is a good project by our students. There is always room for improvement and our students are at it. They are improvising this project based on suggestions they are receiving. This project will be helping fruits and vegetable vendors particularly during the hot summers since these are perishable products. The vendors can supply from the harvest to the customers without losing its freshness. Not only during the summer, this cart can be helpful throughout the year due to tropical conditions in the country.”