NavChair: An Assistive Wheelchair Navigation System with Automatic Adaptation

The NavChair Assistive Wheelchair Navigation System [1], shown in Figure 1,is being developed to provide mobility to those individuals who would otherwise nd it dicult or impossible to use a powered wheelchair due to cognitive, per-ceptual, or motor impairments. The NavChair shares vehicle control decisionswith the wheelchair operator regarding obstacle avoidance, door passage, main-tenance of a straight path, and other aspects of wheechair navigation, to reducethe motor and cognitive requirements for operating a power wheelchair.This chapter provides an overview of the entire NavChair system. First, theNavChair’shardware and low-level softwareare described, followed by a descrip-tion of the navigation assistance algorithms which are employed. Next, threedistinct modes of operation based on these navigation algorithms and impli-mented in the NavChair are presented. Finally, a method for mode selection andautomatic adaptation is described.