This work presents the development of a robotic wheelchair that can be commanded by users in a supervised way or by a fully automatic unsupervised navigation system. It provides flexibility to choose different modalities to command the wheelchair, in addition to be suitable for people with different levels of disabilities. Users can command the wheelchair based on their eye blinks, eye movements, head movements, by sip-and-puff and through brain signals. The wheelchair can also operate like an auto-guided vehicle, following metallic tapes, or in an autonomous way. The system is provided with an easy to use and flexible graphical user interface onboard a personal digital assistant, which is used to allow users to choose commands to be sent to the robotic wheelchair. Several experiments were carried out with people with disabilities, and the results validate the developed system as an assistive tool for people with distinct levels of disability.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 35.45pt;">Introdução: armazenar medicamentos nos domicílios é prática comum da população brasileira, podendo representar um potencial <span style="text-indent: 35.45pt;">risco para o surgimento de agravos à saúde. Além disso, esses medicamentos são armazenados, freqüentemente, em ambientes </span><span style="text-indent: 35.45pt;">inadequados, propiciando diversas possibilidades de consumo irracional. Objetivo: avaliar os medicamentos estocados nos domicílios </span><span style="text-indent: 35.45pt;">em uma cidade do Paraná. Metodologia: foram visitados 31 domicílios e aos seus responsáveis foi aplicado um questionário </span><span style="text-indent: 35.45pt;">padrão semiestruturado. Resultados: foram encontrados 159 medicamentos sendo destes, 33% de anti-inflamatórios, sendo a via </span><span style="text-indent: 35.45pt;">de administração mais citada a oral (74%). Os locais de armazenamento mais frequentemente encontrados foram cozinhas (48%) </span><span style="text-indent: 35.45pt;">seguido dos dormitórios (33%). É válido lembrar que 32,35% dos medicamentos estavam em locais expostos à umidade, 23,52% </span><span style="text-indent: 35.45pt;">acesso à crianças, 20,58% à luz e insetos, 14,70% ao calor e 8,82% à radiação. Conclusão: assim, foi possível observar que a farmácia </span><span style="text-indent: 35.45pt;">caseira está presente na maioria das residências visitadas. E, levando-se em consideração que o profissional do medicamento é o </span><span style="text-indent: 35.45pt;">farmacêutico, pode-se constatar a importância de uma maior atuação deste junto à população. Pois, como mostra claramente este </span><span style="text-indent: 35.45pt;">trabalho, a população estudada armazena e utiliza muitos medicamentos e, portanto necessita de orientações, sobre seus usos, </span><span style="text-indent: 35.45pt;">formas de armazenamento entre outras atribuições.</span></p>

SUMMARYIn this work, a vision-based control interface for commanding a robotic wheelchair is presented. The interface estimates the orientation angles of the user's head and it translates these parameters in command of maneuvers for different devices. The performance of the proposed interface is evaluated both in static experiments as well as when it is applied in commanding the robotic wheelchair. The interface calculates the orientation angles and it translates the parameters as the reference inputs to the robotic wheelchair. Control architecture based on the dynamic model of the wheelchair is implemented in order to achieve safety navigation. Experimental results of the interface performance and the wheelchair navigation are presented.

This paper presents two vision-based interfaces for disabled people to command a mobile robot for personal assistance. The developed interfaces can be subdivided according to the algorithm of image processing implemented for the detection and tracking of two different body regions. The first interface detects and tracks movements of the user's head, and these movements are transformed into linear and angular velocities in order to command a mobile robot. The second interface detects and tracks movements of the user's hand, and these movements are similarly transformed. In addition, this paper also presents the control laws for the robot. The experimental results demonstrate good performance and balance between complexity and feasibility for real-time applications.

This paper presents an interface that uses two different sensing techniques and combines both results through a fusion process to obtain the minimum-variance estimator of the orientation of the user's head. Sensing techniques of the interface are based on an inertial sensor and artificial vision. The orientation of the user's head is used to steer the navigation of a robotic wheelchair. Also, a control algorithm for assistive technology system is presented. The system is evaluated by four individuals with severe motors disability and a quantitative index was developed, in order to objectively evaluate the performance. The results obtained are promising since most users could perform the proposed tasks with the robotic wheelchair.