SLAM-based autonomous wheelchair navigation system for AAL scenarios

Commercial electric-power wheelchairs have become much cheaper in the recent years, likewise the availability of reduced size sensors to an affordable price has made their integration easier in this kind of vehicle. This paper presents the development of a smart navigation system applied to an electric wheelchair. The developed work falls within the Ambient Assisted Living field (AAL), which includes all the technologies whose aim is to improve the quality of life of people in the home environment, especially for the elderly and physically impaired. In particular, the present work is focused on the development of technological support aimed at improving the daily life of that population segment who has motor difficulties, and is forced to use personal mobility support systems such as a wheelchair. This system is able to localize the wheelchair while it is moving in an indoor environment. The system exploits a low cost hardware and an integrated open source software, which permit a cheap integration with already available electric wheelchairs.