Development of intelligent wheelchair simulator for indoor navigation simulation and analysis

Abstract

Disabilities affect majority of the world population nowadays. Autonomous wheelchair is one of the major assistive systems proposed for the disabled people to meet their daily locomotion challenges. Different algorithm and techniques can be used to find the optimal path in these types of intelligent wheelchair to navigate from a source to destination. Notable change in performance can be observed while testing with different algorithms and techniques. As the real world scenarios are so dynamic, replication of different test cases each time with the changing specification of the intelligent wheelchair for study is a strenuous process. Simulation study helps to analyze the different characteristics and behavior of the intelligent wheelchair without much strain. In this paper we describe the detailed study of fixed path algorithm and behavior of the autonomous wheelchair using simulation technique. We hope that such systems would be of great help in the rehabilitation process of the people affected by disaster, conflicts etc. apart from supporting elders.