Shared control for obstacle avoidance in intelligent wheelchairs

• Type: Article in International Conference Proceedings Book
• Date: 2010

Authors

petry, mr (Author) Other; moreira, ap (Author) FEUP; braga, ram (Author) Other; reis, lp (Author) FEUP

Conference proceedings International

Title: 2010 IEEE Conference on Robotics, Automation and Mechatronics, RAM 2010

Pages: 182-187

2010 IEEE International Conference on Robotics, Automation and Mechatronics, RAM 2010

Singapore, 28 June 2010 through 30 June 2010

Indexing

ISI Web of Knowledge

Scopus - 20 Citations

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-007-V6D

DOI: 10.1109/ramech.2010.5513193

Abstract (EN): Intelligent wheelchairs operating in dynamic environments need to sense its neighborhood and adapt the control signal, in real-time, to avoid collisions and protect the user. In this paper we propose a robust, real-time obstacle avoidance extension of the classic potential field methodology. Our algorithm is specially adapted to share the wheelchair's control with the user avoiding risky situations. This method relies on the idea of virtual forces, generated by the user command (attractive force) and by the objects detected on each ultrasonic sensor (repulsive forces), acting on the wheelchair. The resultant wheelchair's behavior is obtained by the sum of the attractive force and all the repulsive forces at a given position. Experimental results from drive tests in a cluttered office environment provided statistical evidence that the proposed algorithm is effective to reduce the number of collisions and still improve the user's safety perception. ©2010 IEEE.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

No. of pages: 6