Comparison of different powered-wheelchair control modes for individuals with severe motor impairments

This paper presents the preliminary evaluation of different powered-wheelchair control modes for individuals with severe motor impediments. To this end, a C400 Permobil wheelchair has been updated with a control command communication interface and equipped with a scanning laser sensor to carry out the automation algorithms that are part of the robot operating system framework. A pilot test was performed with three different modalities; hand-joystick mode, tongue-joystick mode and autonomous mode. The results of the tests have proven the feasibility of using a power wheelchair either autonomously or controlled by users interchangeably in order to continue the development towards a better user/wheelchair shared-control paradigm.