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Self-E: a self-driving wheelchair for elders and physically challenged

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Abstract

In this research work a self-driving wheelchair Self-E is designed and implemented. The wheelchair can be used for indoor navigation and it can help elderly and differently abled people on a day-to-day life. With an Android app developed for Self-E, the user can specify destination coordinates just by touching on the screen of his/her electronic gadget. It takes the user to the destination without the need for continuous control like using joystick till the destination is reached. The research involves the dynamic modelling, design, simulation of the model in ROS Gazebo, implementation and testing of the wheelchair. With extensive experiments that demonstrate the performance and accuracy of the system, testing with patients, and users experience indicate that Self-E could be a better option compared to a joystick controlled powered wheelchairs for certain category of users.

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source C to destination D. Static obstacles are O1–O5. A dynamic obstacle is also shown in the image. The right-side image shows the Self-E inside the lab

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Acknowledgements

We thank our Chancellor Sadguru Sri Mata Amritanandmayi Devi for Her constant support and guidance in completing this research work. We also thank Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham and Humanitarian Technology labs for providing us with all the facilities needed by us to complete this work. We would like to thank Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences (AIMS) hospital, Kochi for providing us the opportunity to test our self-driving wheelchair. We also thank all the volunteers who came forward to test the wheelchair.

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Correspondence to Rajesh Kannan Megalingam.

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Megalingam, R.K., Rajendraprasad, A., Raj, A. et al. Self-E: a self-driving wheelchair for elders and physically challenged. Int J Intell Robot Appl 5, 477–493 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41315-021-00209-9

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Keywords

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