Semi-autonomous outdoor mobility support system for elderly and disabled people

We have been developing the Robotic Communication Terminals (RCTs), which are integrated into a mobility support system to assist elderly or disabled people who suffer from impaired mobility. The RCT system consists of three types of terminals and one server: an environment-embedded terminal, a user-carried mobile terminal, a user-carrying mobile terminal, and a barrier-free map server. The RCT is an integrated system that can be used to cope with various problems of mobility, and provide suitable support to a wide variety of users. This paper provides an in-depth description of the user-carrying mobile terminal. The system itself is a kind of intelligent wheeled vehicle. It can recognize the surrounding 3D environment through infrared sensors, sonar sensors, and a stereo vision system with three cameras, and avoid hazards semi-autonomously. It also can provide adequate navigation by communicating with the geographic information system (GIS) server and detect vehicles appearing from the blind side by communicating with environment-embedded terminals in the real-world.