Paper: The Smart Wheelchair Component System

Richard Simpson, PhD, ATP; Edmund LoPresti, PhD; Steve Hayashi, PhD; Illah Nourbakhsh, PhD; David Miller, PhD

Journal of Rehabilitation Research & Development (JRRD) Volume 41, Number 3B, Pages 429–442 May/June 2004

Abstract—While the needs of many individuals with disabilities can be satisfied with power wheelchairs, some members of the disabled community find it difficult or impossible to operate a standard power wheelchair. To accommodate this population, several researchers have used technologies originally developed for mobile robots to create“smart wheelchairs”that reduce the physical, perceptual, and cognitive skills necessary to operate a power wheelchair. We are developing a Smart Wheelchair Component System (SWCS) that can be added to a variety of commercial power wheelchairs with minimal modification. This paper describes the design of a prototype of the SWCS, which has been evaluated on wheelchairs from four different manufacturers. [PDF]