Smart and Sustainable Engineering for Next Generation Applications

Abstract

Robotic wheelchairs help in improving the mobility and safety of people with severe motor handicaps. In this paper, we propose a microelectromechanical sensor integrated in a data glove to record the hand tilt angle. An Arduino microcontroller processes the formulated angle and transmits a corresponding hand command wirelessly to a prototype robotic wheelchair via a Zigbee module employing IEEE 802.15.4 protocol. A Proportional, Integrative, and Derivative controller is added by interfacing the MATLAB® SIMULINK and Arduino® programming environments to optimise the DC motor speed control response of the robotic wheelchair. The resulting automatic tuning system causes the wheelchair speed to remain constant in both ramping up and down conditions. Experimental outcomes show that the proposed mechanism responds accurately to hand gestures of users.