Design improvements for proportional control of autonomous wheelchairs via 3DOF orientation tracker

Abstract

This paper presents a three degrees of freedom orientation tracker as suitable controlling equipment for an automated wheelchair. Mounted at the back of an operator's head by the help of an easy to wear frontlet, the device permanently outputs the user's head posture which can be used as a joystick-like signal. Within an experimental evaluation we demonstrate the applicability of the proposed control interface even for untrained users. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007.