Multimodal intelligent wheelchair interface

Abstract

Intelligent wheelchairs allow individuals to move more freely, safely, and facilitate users’ interaction with the wheelchair. This paper presents the results focused on the study and analysis of the state of the art related to topics as interaction, interfaces, intelligent wheelchairs and the analysis of the Intellweelsproject. The main goal is to create and implement a multimodal adaptive interface to be used as the control and interaction module of an intelligent wheelchair. Moreover, it will be important to have in mind the usability, by facilitating the control of a complex system, interactivity, by allowing the control using diverse kinds of input devices, and expansibility, by integrating easily with several intelligent external systems. This project features a complex input/output system with linked parameters simplified by a node system to create the input/output actions with automatic input recording and intuitive output association as well as a powerful, device-agnostic design, providing an easy way to extend the inputs, outputs and event the user interface. Results reveal a positive users’ feedback and a responsive way when using the multimodal interface in simulated environment.