Development and Testing of Intelligent Wheelchair Controller for Quadriplegic Patients (original) (raw)

In this research paper, the development and evaluating of a smart controller for electrical powered wheelchairs are presented. The controller aimed to assist quadriplegic, paralyzed, and handicap patients who cannot use their hands to drive an electrical wheelchair by using a joystick controller. Two sub control units have been combined in one hybrid system to create the current version which are voice, and head tilt controllers. They are activated and operated in parallel at the same time to allow the wheelchair user to choose the preferred control method. The voice controller is activated by the user's voice command to control the wheelchair instead of a joystick. The head tilt controller uses the user's head motions to create control commands instead of the joystick controller. The head tilt controller design is based on using two embedded MEMS orientation detection modules as input measurement units. The system uses a modern low power consumption microcontroller to analyze the received information and data from inputs and creating the prompt control commands and send it to the wheelchair motors driver as an output unit.