Gravity and muscle force operated surface ropeway: an efficient, cheap, and eco-friendly transport mode for mountainous countries

Abstract

In this paper, a newly proposed surface ropeway named "Circulating Cable Supported up down Walking Technology by Using Gravity" (CASWAT-G) is presented. CASWAT-G is facilitated by the gravitational force of the descending person, functioning as a gravitational energy harvester. At gravity balance, the ascending and descending persons apply very mild leg muscle forces for easy upwards and downwards walking while using it. Its working principle is close to the one of funicular and ski lift systems. Its working principles with the respective theory are presented to explain the way CASWAT-G functions. Experimental model data showed that a significant amount of harvested gravitational force from the descending person was utilized by the ascending person. The efficiency of the system was found to be above 80%, meaning that its performance is good enough to be used as a transportation facility in mountainous areas of developing countries, like Nepal. It could help not only to protect the environment and save energy but also to promote the livelihood and sustainable development of developing countries, especially in mountainous areas. In addition, it can be used to supply daily required goods to these areas and to promote local products and tourism.

Simple and Low Cost Environmentally Friendly CASWAT-G Surface Ropeway Transportation System for Mountainous Countries

“…This system having efficiency of more than 80 % [9] is similar with funicular and ski lift systems. Because of the use of simple and less numbers of parts, the system is simple with very low cost.…”

“…(5) hghgjh jhjhjhjhjhjh (4) where: m: the mass of the descending or ascending person (DP or AP), g: acceleration due to gravity, θ: the slope of the land, while using the system for walking the forces F d , F p , and F u , represent the leg muscle forces (LMF) applied for downward, plane, and upward walking respectively. The efficiency (η ) of the system can be given as follows [9] 3 e force for plane surface Fp, is given…”

Electric Trolley Prototype for Goods and People Transport on Ziplines

“…Nowadays, the traditional zipline transports are the so-called gravity goods ropeway (GGR), for example, in mountainous territories such as Nepal or other mountainous territories [9][10][11][12][13]. Typically, GGR transport is a non-motorized way of transportation that moves goods from the top of the mountains to the valley by means of gravity.…”

Revolutionizing Mountainous Countries’ Transportation: CASWAT-G Surface Ropeway for Multifaced Application

“…Limited means of ropeways like tuin, gravity ropeways, aerial cable cars are in operation [4,5] for the Accessibility. International and national histories are mentioned by Hoff mann [6,7,8] and USAID report [9]. The concept development and prototype tests were started in Nepal and Master thesises were written at Vienna University of Technology (Austria) by Astigarraga and Fartaria [10,11].…”