Tracking landmarks for control of an electric wheelchair using a stereoscopic camera system

An electrical wheelchair developed to operate in the indoor environments automatically avoids obstacles to move to the desired target for severely disabled people using a stereoscopic camera system. This paper presents a self-propelled control algorithm based on landmarks numbered in order. A SURF algorithm was applied to identify the landmark position, at the same time the “Bumblebee” camera was used to determine the depth parameter of the environmental images for control calculation. Based on this information, the wheelchair can locate where it is by using geometric projection algorithm. The results showed that the wheelchair automatically detected the landmarks to reach the desired target. This means that the proposed method is reliable and effective.