SENARIO: SENsor Aided intelligent wheelchaiR navigatIOn

The SENARIO (SENsor Aided intelligent wheelchaiR NavigatIOn) aims to produce a marketable autonomous wheelchair which can be used by people with a severe temporary or permanent disability. The wheelchair will be able to take the user from place to place within a known environment. SENARIO is funded by the EEC under the TIDE (Telematics networks and services applied to the integration of the disabled and elderly) scheme. The project has been divided up into five subsystems: sensoring; user control; power control; positioning; and risk avoidance. The risk avoidance subsystem is the central unit, processing environment information from the sensoring, positioning and control panel subsystems, and sending commands to the power control subsystem to direct the wheelchair. The project is currently still in the planning stage, and a variety of options have been investigated for each subsystem. Here, the author presents an overview of some of the most suitable options