Improvement of powered wheelchair driving performance during virtual simulator training

To describe the improvements of new power wheelchair (PWC) users' performance in virtual environments during home-based training.

This post hoc analysis used archival data from 24 new PWC users who participated in a two-week training program with the McGill immersive wheelchair (miWe) simulator (computer + joystick). The simulator offered six virtual environments (e.g., adapted transport, market) with three difficulty levels. Participants were instructed to practice each activity at least once, for 20 min every two days. Collisions, completion time and joystick movement fluidity were analysed across three training phases, at the beginning (T1: days 1-3), middle (T2: days 4-6) and end (T3: days 7-10) of training.

Participants trained on average 9.7 times (4.9 h ± 3.1), completing 170 (±120) activities. The difficulty level chosen increased at the beginning and then remained stable. A significant effect of training phase was observed, with fewer collisions, faster completion times and smoother movements (all p < 0.001), most improvement occurring between T1 and T2. Activity-specific analyses revealed heterogeneous patterns: bathroom, market and elevator activities improved mainly from T1 to T2 and then stabilised, whereas street crossing performance remained stable, suggesting an early ceiling effect.

The miWe simulator seemed well accepted and could support engagement of new PWC users in improving driving skills from home. Given activity-dependent plateaus and users' tendency not to select the highest difficulty, future research should explore optimal difficulty adjustments, integrate more complex scenarios and compare outcomes with experienced users to refine training strategies and maximise the learning potential of the simulator.