Development of Intelligent Wheelchair System based on Stereo Omni-directional System (SOS)

This paper presents a novel vision-based intelligent wheelchair system for supporting independent movement of physically handicapped people. A key device of the system is Stereo Omni-directional System (SOS) which can capture omni-directional color and stereo images in real time with a full field of view of 360×360 degrees. By applying the camera system to an electric wheelchair, we are aiming at development of functions of autonomous obstacle-avoidance control and !Hremotely accompanying! Ia handicapped person. The present paper focuses on fundamental technologies of important note, such as auto-correction of camera orientation and high-speed, high-grade integration of images from all directions, from the viewpoint of mounting SOS on an electric wheel chair.