The Hephaestus Smart Wheelchair system

Author

Simpson, Richard C. ; Poirot, Daniel ; Baxter, Francie

Author_Institution

Texas Robotics & Autom. Center, Houston, TX, USA

Volume

10

Issue

2

fYear

2002

fDate

6/1/2002 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

118

Lastpage

122

Abstract

The Hephaestus Smart Wheelchair System is envisioned as a series of components that clinicians and wheelchair manufacturers will be able to attach to standard power wheelchairs to convert them into "smart wheelchairs." A prototype of the system has been developed and mounted on an Everest and Jennings Lancer2000 wheelchair. The prototype bases its navigation assistance behavior on the behavior developed for the NavChair Assistive Wheelchair Navigation System, but the underlying hardware and software are being designed to facilitate commercialization. This paper describes our design goals for the Hephaestus system and discusses the current status of the system prototype as well as plans for future work.

Keywords

computerised instrumentation; handicapped aids; medical computing; navigation; Everest and Jennings Lancer2000 wheelchair; Hephaestus smart wheelchair system; NavChair Assistive Wheelchair Navigation System; commercialization; navigation assistance behavior; standard power wheelchairs; Commercialization; Hardware; Manufacturing; Mobile robots; Navigation; Prototypes; Software design; Software prototyping; Standards development; Wheelchairs; Acoustics; Algorithms; Equipment Design; Goals; Humans; Pattern Recognition, Automated; Pilot Projects; Robotics; Ultrasonics; User-Computer Interface; Wheelchairs;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1534-4320

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TNSRE.2002.1031980

Filename

1031980