Baby stroller for modern parents developed by engineers

A team of researchers has developed a state of the art baby stroller which has headlights, cooling fans, and innovative ergonomic features to maximise safety and functionality. The team’s work, published in Cogent Engineering, fuses an extensive study of strollers through the ages with the latest biomechanical technology to create a truly pioneering stroller design. The futuristic stroller uses innovative “plug and play” modular electronic attachments which will render traditional stroller designs obsolete, whilst readying strollers for the technology of tomorrow. 

In researching their design, the team went right back to the beginning of baby strollers’ commercial history, including William Kent’s original stroller design of 1733 which was clam-shaped and was designed to be pulled by a goat. Every major iteration of stroller since then was assessed by the researchers, examining the early collapsible baby strollers developed in the 1960s and the more familiar folding frame designs that became popular in the 1980s (which remain popular today).

This careful study found that there were many problems with existing strollers, like the fact that seats are not ergonomically designed for babies’ spines, electronics have not been fully utilized, and that strollers are generally not very adaptable for individual families’ needs.

To address these issues, the team from the Faculty of Engineering and Technology at Multimedia University set about creating a proposed “state of the art multi-purpose ergonomic baby stroller”. Their design put the baby’s comfort and safety first, and as such focused on the seat as the most important part of the design. The new stroller’s seat would be sculpted to provide proper lumbar support to the baby, as well as having a perforated back to allow the baby’s back’s skin to “breathe” and remain cool.

The stroller was also designed such that it could accommodate electronic modular attachments. Attachments that the researchers called “essential” included battery powered fans to keep the baby cool and a powerful LED headlight for night walks. The seat itself is attached to the frame by a sophisticated bungee cord system so parents can comfort their baby by gently rocking the seat without taking the baby out of the stroller.

It is hoped that this new “plug and play” electronic stroller will make the industry more contemporary and readied for future technological developments. Umar Nirmal, one of the stroller’s designers, said: “The possibilities of various types of attachments will be endless. The future of baby strollers is bright as technology advances. For instance, controlling, locating, and managing baby strollers will be possible with just a few clicks using smartphones.”

The article, ‘State of the art baby strollers: Design review and the innovations of an ergonomic baby stroller’, published in the open access journal Cogent Engineering, is free to read and download via this permanent link: https:/dx.doi.org/10.1080/23311916.2017.1333273