PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATION OF A SEMI-AUTONOMOUS ROBOTIC WHEELCHAIR DIRECTED THROUGH ELECTRODES

Abstract

Many people with disabilities do not have the dexterity necessary to control a joystick on an electric wheelchair. Our system allows a semiautonomous robotic wheelchair to be commanded by head and eye movement using electrodes placed around the eyes. Once the user issues a high level command such as forward, the wheelchair system will perform the command while avoiding obstacles and taking care of any necessary driving adjustments. Since our system will automatically avoid obstacles and make motor corrections, less effort is required by the user to drive the system. We present preliminary results on an experimental system that combines the Wheelesley robotic wheelchair with the EagleEyes system for controlling a computer through electrodes.