New developments in electric wheelchairs for disabled persons

The design for an intelligent wheelchair to assist disabled or elderly people, whilst they are in hospital is presented. The wheelchair is intended for those who are unable to drive a normal powered wheelchair. The design consists of a central navigation unit obtaining information from environment sensors, a positioning unit and a user control unit. The sensors proposed include ultrasonics, odometry, inclinometry, passive radio beacons, infrared range scanner and voice recognition.