Development of a novel evidence-based automated powered mobility device competency assessment

This paper describes the outcomes of a clinical study to assess the validity of a stand-alone sensor package and algorithms to aid the assessment by an occupational therapist (OT) whether a person has the capacity to safely and effectively operate a powered mobility device such as a wheelchair in their daily activities. The proposed solution consists of a suite of sensors capable of inferring navigational characteristics from the platform it is attached to (e.g. trajectories, map of surroundings, speeds, distance to doors, etc). Such information presents occupational therapists with the ability to augment their own observations and assessments with correlated, quantitative, evidence-based data acquired with the sensor array. Furthermore, OT reviews can take place at the therapist´s discretion as the data from the trials is logged. Results from a clinical evaluation of the proposed approach, taking as reference the commonly-used Power-Mobility Indoor Driving Assessment (PIDA) assessment, were conducted at the premises of the Prince of Wales (PoW) Hospital in Sydney by four users, showing consistency with the OT scores, and setting the scene to a larger study with wider targeted participation.