Automated Curb Recognition and Negotiation for Robotic Wheelchairs

Common electric powered wheelchairs cannot safely negotiate architectural barriers (i.e., curbs) which could injure the user and damage the wheelchair. Robotic wheelchairs have been developed to address this issue; however, proper alignment performed by the user is needed prior to negotiating curbs. Users with physical and/or sensory impairments may find it challenging to negotiate such barriers. Hence, a Curb Recognition and Negotiation (CRN) system was developed to increase user’s speed and safety when negotiating a curb. This article describes the CRN system which combines an existing curb negotiation application of a mobility enhancement robot (MEBot) and a plane extraction algorithm called Polylidar3D to recognize curb characteristics and automatically approach and negotiate curbs. The accuracy and reliability of the CRN system were evaluated to detect an engineered curb with known height and 15 starting positions in controlled conditions. The CRN system successfully recognized curbs at 14 out of 15 starting positions and correctly determined the height and distance for the MEBot to travel towards the curb. While the MEBot curb alignment was 1.5 ± 4.4°, the curb ascending was executed safely. The findings provide support for the implementation of a robotic wheelchair to increase speed and reduce human error when negotiating curbs and improve accessibility.

An Abstraction Layer Exploiting Voice Assistant Technologies for Effective Human—Robot Interaction

A lot of people have neuromuscular problems that affect their lives leading them to lose an important degree of autonomy in their daily activities. When their disabilities do not involve speech disorders, robotic wheelchairs with voice assistant technologies may provide appropriate human–robot interaction for them. Given the wide improvement and diffusion of Google Assistant, Apple’s Siri, Microsoft’s Cortana, Amazon’s Alexa, etc., such voice assistant technologies can be fully integrated and exploited in robotic wheelchairs to improve the quality of life of affected people. As such, in this paper, we propose an abstraction layer capable of providing appropriate human–robot interaction. It allows use of voice assistant tools that may trigger different kinds of applications for the interaction between the robot and the user. Furthermore, we propose a use case as a possible instance of the considered abstraction layer. Within the use case, we chose existing tools for each component of the proposed abstraction layer. For example, Google Assistant was employed as a voice assistant tool; its functions and APIs were leveraged for some of the applications we deployed. On top of the use case thus defined, we created several applications that we detail and discuss. The benefit of the resulting Human–Computer Interaction is therefore two-fold: on the one hand, the user may interact with any of the developed applications; on the other hand, the user can also rely on voice assistant tools to receive answers in the open domain when the statement of the user does not enable any of the applications of the robot. An evaluation of the presented instance was carried out using the Software Architecture Analysis Method, whereas the user experience was evaluated through ad-hoc questionnaires. Our proposed abstraction layer is general and can be instantiated on any robotic platform including robotic wheelchairs.

An Approach on Velocity and Stability Control of a Two-Wheeled Robotic Wheelchair

Conventional robotic wheelchairs (three or four-wheeled) which are statically stable are poor in mobility. Though a two-wheeled robotic wheelchair has better mobility, it is not statically stable and needs an active stability controller. In addition to mobility and stability, velocity control is also important for the operation of a wheelchair. Conventional stability and velocity controllers rely on the motion of the wheels and require high driving torque and power. In this paper, this problem is tackled by adding a compact pendulum-like movable mechanism whose main function is for stability control. Its motion and those of the wheels are controlled through a quasi-sliding mode control approach to achieve a simultaneous velocity and stability control with much less driving torque and power. Simulation results are presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed controller.

Exploring Interaction Design Considerations for Trustworthy Language-Capable Robotic Wheelchairs in Virtual Reality

In previous work, researchers in Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) have demonstrated that user trust in robots depends on effective and transparent communication. This may be particularly true forrobots used for transportation, due to user reliance on such robots for physical movement and safety. In this paper, we present the design of an experiment examining the importance of proactive communication by robotic wheelchairs, as compared to non-vehicular mobile robots, within a Virtual Reality (VR) environment. Furthermore, we describe the specific advantages – and limitations – of conducting this type of HRI experiment in VR.

Exploring Interaction Design Considerations for Trustworthy Language-Capable Robotic Wheelchairs in Virtual Reality

In previous work, researchers in Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) have demonstrated that user trust in robots depends on effective and transparent communication. This may be particularly true for robots used for transportation, due to user reliance on such robots for physical movement and safety. In this paper, we present the design of an experiment examining the importance of proactive communication by robotic wheelchairs, as compared to non-vehicular mobile robots, within a Virtual Reality (VR) environment. Furthermore, we describe the specific advantages -- and limitations -- of conducting this type of HRI experiment in VR.

Research on the shared control technology for robotic wheelchairs based on topological map

Purpose A robotic wheelchair system was designed to assist disabled people with disabilities to walk. Design/methodology/approach An anticipated sharing control strategy based on topological map is proposed in this paper, which is used to assist robotic wheelchairs to realize interactive navigation. Then, a robotic wheelchair navigation control system based on the brain-computer interface and topological map was designed and implemented. Findings In the field of robotic wheelchairs, the problems of poor use, narrow application range and low humanization are still not improved. Originality/value In the system, the topological map construction is not restricted by the environment structure, which helps to expand the scope of application; the shared control system can predict the users’ intention and replace the users’ decision to realize human-machine interactive navigation, which has higher security, robustness and comfort.