Voice control of a powered wheelchair

Several researchers have described voice control mechanisms for a power wheelchair, but voice control has yet to become a commercially viable control alternative. One problem with voice control is that the voice's limited bandwidth renders it impossible to make frequent small adjustments to the wheelchair's velocity. One possible solution is to utilize voice control in combination with the navigation assistance provided by "smart wheelchairs," which use sensors to identify and avoid obstacles in the wheelchair's path. This paper describes an experiment that compares the performance of able-bodied subjects using voice control to operate a power wheelchair both with and without navigation assistance.