Abstract
Assistive Technologies may greatly contribute to give autonomy and independence for individuals with physical limitations. Electric wheelchairs are examples of those assistive technologies and nowadays each time becoming more intelligent due to the use of technology that provides assisted safer driving. Usually, the user controls the electric wheelchair with a conventional analog joystick. However, this implies the need for an appropriate methodology to map the position of the joystick handle, in a Cartesian coordinate system, to the wheelchair wheels intended velocities. This mapping is very important since it will determine the response behavior of the wheelchair to the user manual control. This paper describes the implementation of several joystick mappings in an intelligent wheelchair (IW) prototype. Experiments were performed in a realistic simulator using cerebral palsy users with distinct driving abilities. The users had 6 different joystick control mapping methods and for each user the usability and the users’ preference order was measured. The results achieved show that a linear mapping, with appropriate parameters, between the joystick’s coordinates and the wheelchair wheel speeds is preferred by the majority of the users.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Nakanishi, S., Kuno, Y., Shimada, N., Shirai, Y.: Robotic wheelchair based on observations of both user and environment. In: Filipe, J., Fred, A. (eds.) Int. Conf. on Intelligent Robots and Systems (1999)
Matsumoto, Y., Ino, T., Ogasawara, T.: Development of Intelligent Wheelchair System with Face and Gaze Based Interface. In: 10th IEEE Int. Workshop on Robot and Human Communication, Bordeaux (2001)
Ju, S., Shin, Y., Kim, Y.: Intelligent wheelchair (iw) interface using face and mouth recognition. In: 13th Int. Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces, Canary, Islands (2009)
Sasou, A., Kojima, H.: Noise robust speech recognition applied to voice-driven wheelchair. Journal on Advances in Signal Processing 1(41) (2009)
Simpson, R.: Smart wheelchairs: A literature review. J of Rehabilitation Research & Development, 423–435 (2005)
Braga, R.A.M., Petry, M., Moreira, A.P., Reis, L.P.: Concept and Design of the Intellwheels Platform for Developing Intelligent Wheelchairs. In: Cetto, J.A., Ferrier, J.-L., Filipe, J. (eds.) Informatics in Control, Automation and Robotics. LNEE, vol. 37, pp. 191–203. Springer, Heidelberg (2009)
Choi, K., Sato, M., Koike, Y.: A new human-centered wheelchair system controlled by the EMG signal. In: I. Joint Conf. Neural Networks, Vancouver, BC, Canada, pp. 16–21 (2006)
Dicianno, B.E., Sibenaller, S., Kimmich, C., Cooper, R.A., Pyo, J.: Joystick use for virtual power wheelchair driving in individuals with tremor: Pilot study. J. Rehabilitation Research & Development 46(2), 269–276 (2009)
Fattouh, A., Sahnoun, M., Bourhis, G.: Force Feedback Joystick Control of a Powered Wheelchair: Preliminary Study. In: IEEE Int. Conf. on Systems, Man and Cybernetics, vol. 3, pp. 2640–2645 (2004)
Niitsuma, M., Ochi, T., Yamaguchi, M., Hashimoto, H.: Interaction between a User and a Smart Electric Wheelchair in Intelligent Space. In: Int. Symposium on Micro-Nano Mechatronics and Human Science (MHS), pp. 465–470 (2010)
Pires, G., Nunes, U.: A wheelchair steered through voice commands and assisted by a reactive fuzzy-logic controller. J. Intelligent and Robotics System 34, 301–314 (2002)
Braga, R., Petry, M., Reis, L.P., Moreira, A.P.: IntellWheels: Modular development platform for intelligent wheelchairs. Journal of Rehabilitation Research & Development 48(9), 1061–1076 (2011)
Petry, M., Moreira, A.P., Braga, R., Reis, L.P.: Shared Control for Obstacle Avoidance in Intelligent Wheelchairs. In: 2010 IEEE Conference on Robotics, Automation and Mechatronics (RAM 2010), Singapore, pp. 182–187 (2010)
Murdock, K.L.: 3ds Max 2011 Bible. John Wiley & Sons, Indianapolis (2011)
Carpin, S., Lewis, M., Wang, J., Balakirsky, S., Scrapper, C.: USARSim: a robot simulator for research and education. In: Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Roma, Italy (2007)
Braga, R., Malheiro, P., Reis, L.P.: Development of a Realistic Simulator for Robotic Intelligent Wheelchairs in a Hospital Environment. In: Baltes, J., Lagoudakis, M.G., Naruse, T., Ghidary, S.S. (eds.) RoboCup 2009. LNCS (LNAI), vol. 5949, pp. 23–34. Springer, Heidelberg (2010)
Faria, B.M., Vasconcelos, S., Reis, L.P., Lau, N.: A Methodology for Creating Intelligent Wheelchair Users’ Profiles. In: ICAART 2012 - 4th International Conference and Artificial Intelligence, Algarve, pp. 171–179 (2012)
Reis, L.P., Braga, R.A.M., Sousa, M., Moreira, A.P.: IntellWheels MMI: A Flexible Interface for an Intelligent Wheelchair. In: Baltes, J., Lagoudakis, M.G., Naruse, T., Ghidary, S.S. (eds.) RoboCup 2009. LNCS, vol. 5949, pp. 296–307. Springer, Heidelberg (2010)
Faria, B.M., Vasconcelos, S., Reis, L.P., Lau, N.: Evaluation of Distinct Input Methods of an Intelligent Wheelchair in Simulated and Real Environments: A Performance and Usability Study. Assistive Technology: The Official Journal of RESNA 25(2), 88–98 (2013)
Faria, B.M., Reis, L.P., Lau, N., Soares, J.C., Vasconcelos, S.: Patient Classification and Automatic Configuration of an Intelligent Wheelchair. In: Filipe, J., Fred, A. (eds.) ICAART 2012. CCIS, vol. 358, pp. 268–282. Springer, Heidelberg (2013)
Lewis, J.R.: IBM Computer Usability Satisfaction Questionnaires: Psychometric Evaluation and Instructions for Use. International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction 7(1), 57–78 (1995)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Faria, B.M., Ferreira, L.M., Reis, L.P., Lau, N., Petry, M. (2013). Intelligent Wheelchair Manual Control Methods. In: Correia, L., Reis, L.P., Cascalho, J. (eds) Progress in Artificial Intelligence. EPIA 2013. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 8154. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-40669-0_24
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-40669-0_24
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-40668-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-40669-0
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)