The electric wheelchair is an effective machine for people with lower limb disability. The user controls the wheelchair by a joystick that helps the user to navigate the wheelchair along the desired path. Suppose the user on the wheelchair wants to operate the computer for his jobs or enjoyment, it is preferable for the user to be able to operate the computer without transferring from the wheel...

Many kinds of head movements and facial expressions based human machine interfaces (HMIs) have been developed for hands-free control of electricpowered wheelchairs in order to assist disabled and elderly people. Most of these HMIs have a fixed configuration and do not allow users to choose a configuration suitable to their needs. It becomes necessary to provide users with different control mode...

The NavChair assistive navigation system was originally conceived as an application of mobile robot obstacle avoidance to a power wheelchair. In this system, the user shares wheelchair control with obstacle avoidance and other navigation components. The philosophy of shared control has important implications for the design of these components. This paper discusses the development of navigation ...

In this paper an obstacle avoidance system and a Fuzzy Logic Controller (FLC), together with a distributed system of embedded microcontrollers, are presented. The Fuzzy logic algorithm is a powerful solution among Soft computing techniques, which deals with certain control problems especially when the situation is undefined and ambiguous. One of the main problems faced by conventional control s...

Objectives: Extensive use of wheelchair increases caregiver dependency, risk of bedsores, risk of injury during transfer, and so on, and it effectively decreases quality of life, safety, and comfort of the people with disability. Therefore, improving the design of wheelchairs is highly essential in promoting the quality of life and level of participation among people with disability. The design...

Little is known about how dynamic acceleration affects wheelchair-rider comfort. The current study was to test both the operation of an instrumented wheelchair by a wheelchair user over a Simulated Road Course (SRC) and the operation of the same instrumented wheelchair during normal daily activities (a field test) by test subjects. Sixteen subjects participated in the protocol. A SRC allowed co...

The paper deals with engineering an electric wheelchair from a common wheelchair and the development of a BCI system (Brain-Computer Interface) between the electric wheelchair and the human brain. The target populations for the mind controlled wheelchair are the patients who are paralyzed below the neck and are unable to use conventional wheelchair interfaces. A portable EEG headset, MCU and fi...

The NavChair Assistive Wheelchair Navigation System [19] is being developed to reduce the cognitive and physical requirements of operating a power wheelchair for people with wide ranging impairments that limit their access to powered mobility. The NavChair is based on a commercial wheelchair system with the addition of a DOS-based computer system, ultrasonic sensors, and an interface module int...

This paper proposes a solution to the cross-a-door problem in unknown environments for a robotic wheelchair commanded through a Human-Machine Interface (HMI). The problem is solved by a dynamic path planning algorithm implementation based on successive frontier points determination. An adaptive trajectory tracking control based on the dynamic model of the robotic wheelchair is implemented on th...

OBJECTIVE To investigate the effects of low-intensity wheelchair training on wheelchair-specific fitness, wheelchair skill performance and physical activity levels in inactive people with long-term spinal cord injury. DESIGN Randomized controlled trial. PARTICIPANTS Inactive manual wheelchair users with spinal cord injury for at least 10 years (n = 29), allocated to exercise (n = 14) or no ...