A robotic intelligent wheelchair system based on obstacle avoidance and navigation functions

Powered wheelchairs offer a means of independent mobility for older adults and patients who are unable to walk and cannot propel a manual wheelchair. One concern is these adults and patients are unable to drive a powered wheelchair safely or properly. Intelligent wheelchairs offer an approach to address this problem by self-controlling the movement and direction of the wheelchair without patients and older adult's intervention. This paper describes the development and evaluation of a robotic intelligent wheelchair system (RIWS) based on obstacle avoidance and navigation functions that allow patients to navigate to scheduled outpatient appointments in a hospital safely and accurately. Experimental results show that all scheduled destinations were successfully reached by our RIWS.