A Semi-autonomous Wheelchair Towards User-Centered Design

Research on assistive technology for impaired and elderly is of great importance and it is intended to grow as society undergoes an age shift in its population. Research on assistive technology leads to the development of aids for individual users. These aids can be made more or less autonomous in order to fit an individuals specific needs. Aids can be designed not only to please a user from a technical perspective, but also from a psychological perspective. Based on knowledge about a user, from for example interviews, the design of an aid can be improved. We present a semi-autonomous wheelchair which can be controlled using head-mounted sensors. Control is also possible by sensors placed on the hand of a user. The wheelchair hand control was tested by a user and the feedback from the user is included. Through an interface suitable for specific users, the wheelchair can perform certain tasks autonomously. One such task is moving to a certain location pointed out by a user looking at a map of the surrounding which is presented on a computer screen. With a user centered perspective based on interviews, direct contact, and knowledge about users, we show results for improving the design of assistive technology.