This documentary film tells the story of Mohammad in India, and Mike in the United States, who are separated by social, economic, cultural, linguistic and religious differences, and yet there is an inanimate object that connects them-the rickshaw. The film examines how rickshaw men are viewed and treated by the society they live in and also illuminates the threads of commonality between these two men to show that they are not so different from each other after all.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hong Kong, 1996. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 360-380).

A partir de l’introduction d’un objet roulant inédit : le rickshaw à moteur, je propose dans une ethnographie multisituée de « tenir » les deux bouts d’une chaîne qui a organisé l’engouement pour ce nouveau mode de transport. De la fondation à la stabilisation de la filière, il s’agit d’explorer au raz du trois-roues, la mise en route africaine de l’innovation indienne, pour comprendre entre Kinshasa (RDC) et les petites villes du delta du Nil (Égypte) un processus de composition collectif dans sa dimension génétique, ce pas de temps vulnérable et méthodologiquement expérimental. / Starting from the introduction of an unprecedented rolling object: the autorickshaw, I propose, in a multi-sited ethnography, to “hold” the two extremities of a chain that has created such a keen interest for this new transport mode. From the founding to the stabilisation of this industry, the implementation in Africa of the Indian three-wheeled innovation, to include, between Kinshasa (DRC) and the small towns of the Nile Delta (Egypt), a collective composing process from a genetic standpoint, this vulnerable and methodologically experimental time slot.

abstract / toc / History / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

The purpose of this thesis is to design a motorized three wheeler used for the transport of people and goods. The result of this work should offer an alternative to today‘s three wheelers. Nowadays, the market with three wheelers is no longer dynamic and it is in need of innovation. This work aims to respect the history of the vehicle and its traditional use along with trends in automotive design. Resulting design will become a representation of a new way this type of cheap vehicle could evolve.

Electric and hybrid vehicles are particularly suited for use in urban areas since city transportation is mainly characterized by relatively short driving distances, low continuous power requirements, long idling times and high availability of regenerative braking energy. These characteristics, when carefully incorporated into the design process, create valuable opportunities for developing clean, efficient and cost effective urban vehicle propulsion systems. In the first part of the thesis, we present data collected in the city of Bangalore, India from a very commonly seen mode of transportation for hire in India and other emerging economies, namely a three-wheeled vehicle known as the “auto-rickshaw”. From a statistical analysis, it is shown that the typical range is 72.5 km with a mean speed of 12.5 km/h. More than 60% of the time the auto-rickshaw is stationary or has a speed of less than 5 km/h. From a model of the auto-rickshaw, it is shown from simulations that 4 kW DC motor and about 10 kWh of electrical energy is enough to meet 80% of typical requirement. Based on this finding, in this thesis, a novel parallel hybrid architecture is proposed where two 2 kW DC hub motors are directly mounted on the wheels and an internal combustion (IC) engine output is connected to the stator of the DC hub motors to provide additional power when required. To match load and speed, a continuously variable transmission (CVT) is placed in-between the IC engine and the DC hub motor. The proposed hybrid configuration adds speed to the wheel output unlike the normal power split configuration which adds torque. One of the main objective of this work is to study and compare the performance of the above novel speed-addition and compare with the typical torque-addition configuration. A MATLAB/Simulink model for both the configurations, with DC hub motor and a small IC engine, has been created and the fuel consumption has been calculated. It is shown that the proposed speed-addition concept gives better fuel efficiency for the standard modified Indian Driving Cycle. The models have also been compared for actual driving data and an optimal control strategy has been developed using dynamic programming. It is again shown that the proposed speed-addition concept results in better fuel economy. In the last part of the thesis, a low cost experimental test-bed consisting of an auto-rickshaw IC engine, a CVT and a 2 kW DC hub motor has been developed to validate the speed-addition concept and compare with the torque-addition configuration. The torque-speed curves of the IC engine, the DC motor and both of them together, in the speed and torque-addition configuration, have been obtained. It is shown that the speed-addition concept does indeed work and the obtained results are significantly different from the torque-addition configuration.