Development of an automated wheelchair guided by a magnetic ferrite marker lane

Abstract

Abstract-An automated wheelchair with a guide sensor, guided by a magnetic ferrite marker that is resistant to the presence of dirt, is described. The wheelchair permits the severely disabled, as well as the older population, to move about freely, both indoors and outdoors. This is due to the simple operation involved (pushing a button), and a magnetic ferrite marker lane which is minimally influenced by dirt or other nonmagnetic materials. For increased comfort, a nonlinear signal-processing circuit and pulse-steering drive method have been developed to provide a smooth running operation. In addition, a function that provides for stopping at desired destinations has been added for convenience, and a collision prevention function using infrared sensors has been added for safety.

The smart house for older persons and persons with physical disabilities: structure, technology arrangements, and perspectives

“…Despite these problems, there are some successful examples of commercially available rehabilitation robots, such as Manus (Exact Dynamics BV, The Netherlands) [58], [59], Raptor (Advanced Rehabilitation Technologies, Pottstown, PA) [60], and Handy1 (Rehab Robotics, Ltd., Staffordshire, U.K.) [61], [62] which are everyday used by an increasing number of real end-users, offering them enhanced movement assistance and comfort in operation.…”

“…The guidepath systems for wheelchair navigation can be considered a special class of beacon-based systems where the guide tracks are embedded in the floor. The magnetic-tape guidepath scheme [62] involves a strip of flexible magnetic material attached to the floor surface. The magnetic stripe follower is based on an array of fluxgate or Hall effect sensors, mounted on the board of the vehicle.…”

Natural Interactions: An Application for Gestural Hands Recognition

“…A escolha por este tipo de veículo toma em consideração as habilidades sensoriais e motoras do utilizador, como o seu desejo de se locomover de modo independente (Bersch, 2009). (Wakaumi, Nakamura, & Matsumura, 1992).…”

Smart wheelchairs: A literature review

“…The map can encode distance (in which case it is referred to as a metric map) or can be limited to specifying the connections between locations without any distance information (i.e., a topological map). There are, of course, other approaches to autonomous navigation that do not require an internal map, such as following tracks laid on the floor (e.g., Automated-Guided Wheelchair [40]). …”