Design of a collaborative wheelchair with path guidance assistance

Abstract

This paper describes the development and assessment of a Collaborative Wheelchair Assistant (CWA). The concept at the heart of the CWA is to rely on the user's motion planning skills and assist the maneuvering with path guidance. The user decides where to go and controls the speed (including start and stop), while the system guides the wheelchair along software-defined paths. An intuitive path editor allows the user to modify the path on-line and so avoid dangers or obstacles. By using the human sensory and planning systems, complex sensor processing and artificial decision systems are not needed, making the system safe, simple and low-cost. Experimental results demonstrate this concept. © 2006 IEEE.