A low-cost autonomous wheelchair navigation system

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Electric wheelchairs are frequently prescribed to individuals who have substantial mobility challenges. For a subset of users with upper-body fine motor control impairments due to spinal cord injury, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and multiple sclerosis (MS), it is impossible to operate an electric wheelchair using the standard joystick interface. Such users must instead rely on other types of assistive control devices (for example, sip-and-puff switches) - these devices are typically extremely difficult to use, resulting in degraded mobility and a substantially deteriorated quality of life. In partnership with Simcoe Habilitation Services (SHS), Inc., the proposed research project will develop a low-cost autonomous wheelchair navigation system. SHS is a leading provider of occupational therapy services for severely disabled individuals living in the province of Ontario. The proposed system will use inexpensive commercial, off-the-shelf sensors such as the Microsoft Kinect depth camera, and will enable point-to-point navigation in home and office environments with a single command. This will dramatically enhance the mobility of a large population of wheelchair users: more than 65,000 Canadians with spinal cord injuries, ALS, and MS, may benefit from this type of navigation system.