Sunday 22 / December / 2024
Muscat: Passengers can now avoid the hassle of extra airport charges thanks to this brand new Omani invention. The ‘Smart Airport Cart’, designed and made by Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) students, has an electric balance that measures the weight of luggage.
“The cart’s balance surface is connected to a touch screen that displays information about the weight of the packages and the cost of the extra weight,” Asaad Al Sulti, a member of the eight-student team, said. Furthermore, Al Sulti explained that the cart has a mechanical system that facilitates an easy and smooth movement.
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“We modified the cart so that a passenger does not have to exert an effort to push the cart, especially when the cart is fully loaded,” Al Sulti added. Interestingly, and for safety reasons, the state-of-the-art cart has also been provided with a distance sensor that stops it when there is a body 30cm away from it.
Asked how the idea of this invention hit the team, Al Sulti said that as Muscat International Airport is currently under development, he and his team decided to modify the airport cart with a cutting-edge technology to help passengers save time and money while travelling through the our new airport.
Explaining how it functions, he said that the modified cart has an electric balance connected to a touch screen. “By choosing the type of airline from the screen, passengers can see their packages’ weight and the cost of the extra weight (if any) before reaching the counter,” Al Sulti said, adding that the team’s future plan is to develop the cart and introduce it to international airports around the world. The cost of modifying a cart to a ‘Smart Airport Cart’ is around OMR100 per cart.
It is worth mentioning that the team is participating in the 7th Engineering Students Gathering at the Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) which kicked off on Sunday, an event held under the patronage Salim bin Nassir Al Oufi, undersecretary of the Ministry of Oil and Gas, and Dr. Ali Al Bemani,vice chancellor of the SQU.
They are all set to showcase their latest invention along with students from Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries and Arab countries who will also be competing in the annual event, which will focus this year on sustainable applications of engineering projects.
