Navigation Guidance Control Using Haptic Feedback for Obstacle Avoidance of Omni-directional Wheelchair

It is difficult for a novice rider to navigate an omni-directional wheelchair through a narrow space such an elevator door or a path along the wall because it is always necessary to keep in mind the width of the vehicle. Such navigation can produce stress in the operator. In those cases, a navigation guidance system that appeals to human´s sensation of touch can be useful. In this paper, a novel navigation guidance system using a haptic feedback joystick is proposed for the omni-directional wheelchair. The present navigation guidance system adopts a force feedback joystick in order to induce the operator to evade obstacles.