Wheelchair simulators: A review

Piloting a manual wheelchair is an important necessity for the everyday life and social activities of people with physical and sometimes cognitive disabilities. It requires complex capacities and may become tiring and stressful during indoor as well as outdoor activities. The enactment of laws relating to accessibility and discrimination, all around the world, has motivated researchers to verify building standards and to improve wheelchair ergonomics. Nowadays, the potential of Virtual Reality (VR) in training and daily living activities simulation is already well-known. The aim of this paper is to provide an updated review which explores various VR-based systems and studies related to wheelchair simulators. In particular, we consider wheelchair simulator characteristics according to a user centred view driven by perception and interaction, and wheelchair behavioral simulation. We continue with a description of wheelchair simulator application fields as well as a review of the various objectives for carrying out wheelchair simulation studies.

[1]  S L Cox.  Adaptable virtual reality interface for powered wheelchair training of disabled children , 2002 .

[2]  Dean P. Inman,et al.  VR education and rehabilitation , 1997, CACM.

[3]  Sara L Cox,et al.  Development and evaluation of a virtual reality based training system for disabled children , 1998 .

[4]  P. M. Grant,et al.  Development of a wheelchair virtual reality platform for use in evaluating wheelchair access , 2000 .

[5]  Albert 'Skip' Rizzo.  Virtual reality and disability: emergence and challenge , 2002 .

[6]  Hironao Yamada,et al.  Using Virtual Reality to Assess Factors Affecting Shipboard Accessibility for Wheelchair Users , 2004, Control. Intell. Syst..

[7]  Shirley G Fitzgerald,et al.  Kinetic and physiological analysis of the GAME(Wheels) system. , 2002, Journal of rehabilitation research and development.

[8]  Moustapha Hafez,et al.  Les sens de l'homme , 2006 .

[9]  Rivka Oxman,et al.  Virtual environments as an aid to the design and evaluation of home and work settings for people with physical disabilities , 2004 .

[10]  P E Patterson,et al.  Modelling the propulsion characteristics of a standard wheelchair. , 1994, Journal of rehabilitation research and development.

[11]  Évelyne Klinger.  Apports de la réalité virtuelle à la prise en charge du handicap , 2008 .

[12]  H Niniss.  Simulation of the Behaviour of a powered Wheelchair using Virtual Reality , 2000 .

[13]  Hideo Fujimoto,et al.  Development of wheelchair experience system and spatial recognition in virtual environment , 1996, Proceedings of the 1996 IEEE IECON. 22nd International Conference on Industrial Electronics, Control, and Instrumentation.

[14]  E. A. Attree,et al.  The role of virtual reality technology in the assessment and training of inexperienced powered wheelchair users , 2002, Disability and rehabilitation.

[15]  R A Cooper,et al.  Does computer game play aid in motivation of exercise and increase metabolic activity during wheelchair ergometry? , 2001, Medical engineering & physics.

[16]  Anders Kottorp,et al.  P-drive: assessment of driving performance after stroke. , 2006, Journal of rehabilitation medicine.

[17]  Dan Ding,et al.  Virtual Reality and Computer-Enhanced Training Applied to Wheeled Mobility: An Overview of Work in Pittsburgh , 2005, Assistive technology : the official journal of RESNA.

[18]  M. Winance,et al.  Demographics of wheelchair users in France: results of national community-based handicaps-incapacités-dépendance surveys. , 2008, Journal of rehabilitation medicine.

[19]  A.V. Sonar,et al.  Development of a virtual reality-based power wheel chair simulator , 2005, IEEE International Conference Mechatronics and Automation, 2005.

[20]  Kincho H. Law,et al.  Compliance Analysis for Disabled Access , 2002, Advances in Digital Government.

[21]  Bernard A. Conway,et al.  Haptic Interfaces for Wheelchair Navigation in the Built Environment , 2004, Presence: Teleoperators & Virtual Environments.

[22]  Chul-Gyu Song,et al.  A new postural balance control system for rehabilitation training based on virtual cycling. , 2004, IEEE transactions on information technology in biomedicine : a publication of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society.

[23]  Takenobu Inoue,et al.  Assessment of driving skills using Virtual Reality: Comparative survey on experts and unskilled users of electric wheelchairs , 2006 .