TetraNauta: a intelligent wheelchair for users with very severe mobility restrictions

The TetraNauta project is a low cost, fully open steering system to allow people with heavy motor impairments to move in a known environments (hospitals, schools, home, etc.). It minimizes the steering effort, especially in long paths, while caring for user safety. Every TetraNauta wheelchair has a general map of the environment wherein it navigates in automatic mode. It also knows its actual position in the map using on-board sensors that detect absolute positioning marks. The system consists of a traffic management subsystem and wheelchair motion control subsystem. Virtual potential fields as a tool for implementing automatic guidance in the intelligent electric wheelchair are considered.