Guidance of a wheelchair by voice

Abstract

A wheelchair is an important vehicle for physically handicapped persons . However, for the injuries who suffer from spasms and paralysis of extremities, the joystick is a useless device as a manipulating tool. They cannot operate the joystick smoothly at all. So, a voice command system may be a good information transmission means of high efficiency and low load for such users (1). A voice command system has been applied in other fields. Interface Agent for Process Plant (2) is one example. But, most research is of no practical use because of problems such as control due to time delay for a voice sensing or misrecognition. This study aims at running a powered-wheelchair safely and comfortably by vocal commands. In this paper, we state the result of an experimental choice of commands that are necessary for running. Secondly, we discuss the experimental results of successfully running by voice using micro-robot KHEPERA. And, two kinds of running mode are compared from the points of running time and frequency of commands and so on. The keyboard input and voice input are compared. Lastly, before making an experiment by a powered-wheelchair, experimental tests by the simulator were done. This experiment aimed to find any problems for running outside the room. Also, it was checked whether the basic commands used would be enough to run. Some experiments were tested by actually running a powered-wheelchair.