NSF Convergence Accelerator: Track H: Mobility Independence through Accelerated Wheelchair Intelligence

最普遍的辅助机器是电动轮椅。它赋予许多因疾病或受伤而有运动障碍的人独立的行动能力。然而，对于数百万人来说，电动轮椅的独立操作仍然过于繁重，甚至完全无法使用。对于运动能力有限的人来说，目前的控制界面很难有效地捕捉他们身体的命令，并且缺乏确保安全有效驾驶轮椅的驾驶员辅助选项。其结果是剥夺了残疾人及其家属的独立性和在社区和劳动力中的参与。该项目旨在通过从根本上改变从人体获取控制输入并将其转移到机器的方式，以及利用实用的机器智能来提高安全性并促进独立轮椅操作，从而加速电动轮椅的可达性和实用性。第一阶段的加速将开发一个辅助轮椅原型，极大地扩大了那些有严重运动障碍的人的独立行动能力，这对生活质量和劳动力参与以及残疾人及其照顾者都具有重要意义。这个融合加速器的合作伙伴包括利益相关者，他们提供指导原型设计的实践使用和临床专业知识，以及实现并随后翻译该设计的工程师。合作伙伴包括非营利组织（格里森团队，Shirley Ryan AbilityLab），学术界（西北大学）和工业界（LUCI，Relay Robotics，Function Engineering）。扩大参与计划吸引了患有ALS的轮椅最终用户。2020年，首款商用、FDA注册的电动轮椅驾驶员辅助系统（LUCI）进入市场。然而，在他们的（减法）援助和自动机器人公司在动态人类环境中实现的自动化之间存在差距。从绕过障碍物的主动转向到半自主导航，主动援助的潜在影响是巨大的。辅助轮椅市场已经准备好整合这些功能，患有退行性疾病的人特别需要这种迅速扩大的援助范围。第1阶段的工作将完成以下研究重点，每个研究重点将产生硬件和软件交付成果。·推力1：通过符合用户需求并提供充分表现力的轮椅控制功能的新型灵活控制界面，弥合了能够操作操纵杆的驾驶员与无法操作操纵杆的驾驶员之间在无障碍轮椅控制方面的差距。·推力二：通过为轮椅控制系统和输入设备之间的双向通信贡献开源和数字API，使未来轮椅输入机制的开发现代化和民主化。·推力3：通过扩展轮椅辅助系统，将商用级机器人导航功能整合到唯一一款商用、经FDA注册的电动轮椅驾驶员辅助系统中，提高轮椅智能的安全性和独立性。到第一阶段结束时，将建造两款集成所有交付成果的原型，包括：（1）机器人导航和安全系统，构建在LUCI电动轮椅上，（2）与人类驾驶员共享控制，通过（3）新颖的灵活界面提供控制命令，该界面通过（4）开放式-该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The most ubiquitous assistive machine is the power wheelchair. It endows independent mobility to many with motor impairments that result from disease or injury. Yet, there are millions for whom the independent operation of power wheelchairs remains overly burdensome, or even entirely inaccessible. For people with limited movement capabilities, current control interfaces struggle to effectively capture commands from their bodies, and there is a lack of driver assistance options that ensure safe and effective wheelchair driving. The result is a deprivation—for persons with disabilities, and their caregivers—of independence and engagement within the community and workforce. This project proposes to accelerate the accessibility and utility of power wheelchairs by radically changing how control inputs are captured from the human body and transferred to the machine, and by leveraging practical machine intelligence to enhance safety and facilitate independent wheelchair operation. The Phase 1 acceleration will develop an assistive wheelchair prototype, that greatly expands access to independent mobility by those with severe motor impairments—which is significant for both quality of life and participation in the workforce, and by both persons with disabilities and their caregivers. The partners on this convergence accelerator include stakeholders to provide hands-on use and clinical expertise that guides the prototype design, and engineers to realize and later translate that design. The partnership spans non-profits (Team Gleason, Shirley Ryan AbilityLab), academia (Northwestern University), and industry (LUCI, Relay Robotics, Function Engineering). The broadening participation plan engages wheelchair end-users who have ALS.The year 2020 saw the first commercially-available, FDA-registered driver assistance system for power wheelchairs enter the market (LUCI). There exists a gap, however, between their (subtractive-only) assistance and the automation achieved by autonomous robot companies within dynamic human environments. From active steering around obstacles to semi-autonomous navigation, the potential impact for active assistance is tremendous. The assistive wheelchair market is ready for the integration of such capabilities, and persons with degenerative diseases in particular need this greatly expanded scope of assistance without delay. The Phase 1 work will accomplish the following research thrusts, each of which will produce a hardware and software deliverable. • Thrust 1: Bridging the gap in accessible wheelchair control between drivers who can operate a joystick and those who cannot, through the contribution of a novel flexible control interface that conforms to the user and offers fully expressive wheelchair control.• Thrust 2: Modernizing and democratizing the development of future wheelchair input mechanisms, through the contribution of an open-source and digital API for bilateral communication between wheelchair control systems and input devices.• Thrust 3: Advancing safety and independence with wheelchair intelligence, through expanded wheelchair assistance that incorporates commercial-grade robot navigation capabilities into the only commercially-available, FDA-registered driver assistance system for power wheelchairs.By the end of Phase 1, two prototypes that integrate all deliverables will have been built, that consist of: (1) a robotic navigation and safety system, built atop a LUCI power wheelchair, that (2) shares control with the human driver, who provides control commands through (3) the novel flexible interface that communicates with the wheelchair control system via (4) the open-source drive interface.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.