On a Roll: Autonomous Navigation Lasers and Robotics Push “Smart” Wheelchair Technology to the Cutting Edge
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One of the latest attempts to build a commercially viable smart wheelchair is leveraging lessons learned from the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge
Engineers can build autonomous vehicles capable of cruising city streets without the aid of a human driver, as demonstrated two years ago in the DARPA Urban Challenge. A team of researchers is now looking to translate that success to the medical field by building so-called “smart wheelchairs” with artificial intelligence that uses lasers, sensors and mapping software to operate and navigate powered chairs for riders who cannot do so on their own.
With help from a five-year, $480,000 National Science Foundation grant received in June, a team of researchers led by John Spletzer, an associate professor of computer science and engineering at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa., has developed a prototype chair designed specifically for negotiating sidewalks, parking lots and other outdoor areas.
As with other smart wheelchairs designed in the past, Spletzer’s device uses a light detection and ranging(LiDAR) system to detect trees, poles, parking meters, corners and other real-world obstacles. A key difference is that this chair will cross-reference the maps it makes of its surroundings using LiDAR and other sensors with 3-D maps that Spletzer and his team create and load into its memory. To complement the chair’s ability to recognize and avoid stationary obstacles, the researchers are also planning to write software that will help the chair predict and avoid moving obstacles such as pedestrians and cars.
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