Initial results in the development of a guidance system for a powered wheelchair

This paper describes the development of an automatically guided powered wheelchair for individuals with severe disabilities. The navigation and control of the wheelchair is based the accurate estimation of the location of the wheelchair within its operating workspace. A novel method used to generate and track reference paths which take the user to and from various destinations within the wheelchair's environment is presented. The paper also provides a qualitative description of the restrictions and requirements that are specific to the wheelchair application as well as the way in which the current system addresses these restrictions and requirements. Finally, actual experimental runs of the wheelchair system are presented.