Implementing strategies for cautious navigation of robotic wheelchairs

Strategies for cautious navigation of robotic wheelchairs are presented. They are based on known navigation environments, which allow generating paths with low risk of collision. A path-following algorithm is then proposed to keep the mobile vehicle close to the reference route, thus minimizing the risk of collision. Although navigation environments are supposedly known, they are not necessarily static. Possible changes can create obstacles to the vehicle motion. So, an obstacle avoidance method is considered, and a convergence method is proposed to take the mobile vehicle back to the reference path after avoiding an obstacle. A supervisory system to manage the several modules of such system is also proposed, resulting in a harmonic structure. Simulations and experiments are also presented, whose results validate the proposed system.