Robotic wheelchair based on observations of people using integrated sensors

Recently, several robotic/intelligent wheelchairs have been proposed that employ user-friendly interfaces or autonomous functions. Although it is often desirable for user to operate wheelchairs on their own, they are often accompanied by a caregiver or companion. In designing wheelchairs, it is important to reduce the caregiver load. In this paper we propose a robotic wheelchair that can move with a caregiver side by side. In contrast to a front-behind position, in a side-by-side position it is more difficult for wheelchairs to adjust when the caregiver makes a turn. To cope with this problem we present a visual-laser tracking technique. In this technique, a laser range sensor and an omni-directional camera are integrated to observe the caregiver. A Rao-Blackwellized particle filter framework is employed to track the caregiver´s position and orientation of both body and head based on the distance data and panorama images captured from the laser range sensor and the omni-directional camera. After presenting this technique, we introduce an application of the wheelchair for museum visit use.