Intelligent joystick for controlling power wheelchair navigation

The aim of this work is to develop a new method for driving assistance for the disabled persons for which a standard joystick is unable to provide their security. Indeed; a new intelligent control algorithm to drive a wheelchair joystick is proposed. This allows the system able to avoid the unforeseen obstacles when a prescribed trajectory of the wheelchair has to be followed by the system driven by a disabled person and consequently ensures his or her safety. The idea is based on the combination of a fuzzy controller with a Vector Field Histogram (VHF) algorithm providing smooth control of the wheelchair that takes into account wheelchair environment submitted to obstacles and random situations. The superiority of the proposed supervised system with respect to standard existing systems is its ability to automatically react in presence of encountered obstacles.