INCH: an intelligent wheelchair prototype

Abstract

A p r o t o t y p e of an i n t e l l i g e n t w h e e l c h a i r (INCH) has been equipped w i t h u l t r a s o u n d range s e n s o r s and a Motorola 68HCl1, an i n e x p e n s i v e m i c r o c o n t r o l l e r . INCH was designed t o d e t e c t f a l l -o f f s and o b j e c t s i n i t s p a t h , t h e r e b y address i n g t h e needs of v i s u a l l y impaired p e r s o n s who have been c o n f i n e d t o w h e e l c h a i r s . Range informat i o n was d e r i v e d from a s e t of s i x P o l a r o i d u l t r a s o u n d t r a n s d u c e r s c o n t r o l l e d by custom e l e c t r o n i c s . Two Airpax s t e p p e r motors were used t o d r i v e t h e wheels. I n p u t provided by a s t a n d a r d analog j o y s t i c k i n d i c a t e d t h e d e s i r e d speed and d i r e c t i o n of motion. The l i m i t a t i o n s of I N C H a r e d i s c u s s e d and a m u l t i -s e n s o r approach t o improve t h e performance i s suggested.

Matching Points to Lines: Sonar-based Localization for the PSUBOT

“…Engelhardt has published a wealth of papers on human-machine integration (interaction) specifically targ~ted to the elderly and disabled (see [ 16] for an overview). The robot "INCH" [39] was an intelligent wheelchair with the ability to interrupt user control in the event of an impending collision, and Madarasz et al developed an image processing system for a wheelchair which was able to navigate in hallways by looking for the converging lines of baseboards [30].…”

An intelligent database for PSUBOT, an autonomous wheelchair

“…The model does not explicitly use knowledge-based method to build more information from the static map. The model proposed by Rao et Kuc [5] is a prototype without any intelligence mechanism at all. It has the particularity of detecting drop-offs on sharp edges.…”