title: The smart wheelchair component system.
abstract: While the needs of many individuals with disabilities can be satisfied with power wheelchairs, some members of the disabled community find it difficult or impossible to operate a standard power wheelchair. To accommodate this population, several researchers have used technologies originally developed for mobile robots to create "smart wheelchairs" that reduce the physical, perceptual, and cognitive skills necessary to operate a power wheelchair. We are developing a Smart Wheelchair Component System (SWCS) that can be added to a variety of commercial power wheelchairs with minimal modification. This paper describes the design of a prototype of the SWCS, which has been evaluated on wheelchairs from four different manufacturers.
authors.affiliation: University of Pittsburgh, Forbes Tower, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA. ris20@pitt.edu
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Simpson
authors.forename: Edmund
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Lopresti
authors.forename: Steve
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hayashi
authors.forename: Illah
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Nourbakhsh
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Miller
mesh_terms: D011211:Electric Power Supplies; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D005103:Expert Systems; D006801:Humans; D008124:Locomotion; D008328:Man-Machine Systems; D012371:Robotics; D014584:User-Computer Interface; D014910:Wheelchairs