Autonomous mobility scooters as assistive tools for the elderly

The aim of this research is to investigate the development of an autonomous navigation system that could be used as an assistive tool for elderly and disabled people in their activities of daily living. The navigation environment is an urban environment and the platform is a Mobility Scooter (MoS). To achieve this aim, a differentially steered MoS was modifed to receive motion commands from a computer and outfitted with onboard sensors that included a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver and two 2D planar laser range sensors. Perception methods were developed to detect the presence of an outdoor pedestrian walkway. These methods achieved this by processing the range data produced by the laser sensors to identify features that are typically found around walkways like curbs, low vegetation, walls and barriers. A method that utilises GPS localisation information to plan and navigate a route in an outdoor urban environment was also developed. Extensive experimental work was conducted to test the accuracy, repeatability and usefulness of the sensory devices. The developed perception methodologies were evaluated in real world environments while the navigation algorithms were predominantly tested in virtual environments. A navigation system that plans a route in an urban environment and follows it using behaviours arranged in a hierarchy is presented and shown to have the ability to safely navigate an MoS along an outdoor pedestrian path

Autonomous Personal Mobility Scooter for Multi-Class Mobility-On-Demand Service

In this paper, we describe the design and development of an autonomous personal mobility scooter that was used in public trials during the 2016 MIT Open House, for the purpose of raising public awareness and interest about autonomous vehicles. The scooter is intended to work cooperatively with other classes of autonomous vehicles such as road cars and golf cars to improve the efficacy of Mobility-on-Demand transportation solutions. The scooter is designed to be robust, reliable, and safe, while operating under prolonged durations. The flexibility in fleet expansion is shown by replicating the system architecture and sensor package that has been previously implemented in the road car and golf cars. We show that the vehicle performed robustly with small localization variance. A survey of the users shows that the public is very receptive to the concept of the autonomous personal mobility device.Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART) (Future Urban Mobility research program)Singapore. National Research Foundatio

Exploration of robotic-wheel technology for enhanced urban mobility and city scale omni-directional personal transportation

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, 2008.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 50-52).Mobility is traditionally thought of as freedom to access more goods and services. However, in my view, mobility is also largely about personal freedom, i.e., the ability to exceed one's physical limitations, in essence, to become "more than human" in physical capabilities. This thesis explores novel designs for omni-directional motion in a mobility scooter, car and bus with the aim of increasing personal mobility and freedom. What links these designs is the use of split active caster wheel robot technology. In the first section, societal and technological impacts of omni-directional motion in the city are examined. The second section of the thesis presents built and rendered prototypes of these three designs. The third and final section, evaluates implementation issues including robotic controls and an algorithm necessary for real world omni-directional mobility.by Raul-David Valdivia Poblano.S.M

Virtual Prototyping and Validation for Autonomous Assistive Mobility

Physical disability in humans is something that no one has control over. It is catastrophic for people to experience it, and sometimes hinders them from enjoying the essence of life. Though disability is something people have no control over, they do have control on how they can go forward and make life beautiful and meaningful. Wheelchairs have helped people with disabilities in mobility, allowing them to move around with the help of others or sometimes on their own. This research will focus on development of an autonomous assistive mobility robot to help the disabled using virtual prototyping tools for development and validation. The developed virtual model will also be developed in real world and validated to navigate autonomously. The virtual and real-world autonomous model developed will take a systems engineering approach. The key features of this system are mapping, localisation, and navigating towards a goal autonomously. The virtual model is validated in different virtual environments for its functionality. The real-world model is developed similar to its virtual counterpart and is tested and validated for its functionality. The local path planner implemented is analyzed quantitatively for both the real-world and virtual models. The differences in design and development are analyzed and identified. To conclude, the research has lead to the development of a virtual and real-world model of an autonomous wheelchair that has been tested and validated in both the environments

An Initial Exploration of a Multi-Sensory Design Space: Tactile Support for Walking in Immersive Virtual Environments

Multi-sensory feedback can potentially improve user experience and performance in virtual environments. As it is complicated to study the effect of multi-sensory feedback as a single factor, we created a design space with these diverse cues, categorizing them into an appropriate granularity based on their origin and use cases. To examine the effects of tactile cues during non-fatiguing walking in immersive virtual environments, we selected certain tactile cues from the design space, movement wind, directional wind and footstep vibration, and another cue, footstep sounds, and investigated their influence and interaction with each other in more detail. We developed a virtual reality system with non-fatiguing walking interaction and low-latency, multi-sensory feedback, and then used it to conduct two successive experiments measuring user experience and performance through a triangle-completion task. We noticed some effects due to the addition of footstep vibration on task performance, and saw significant improvement due to the added tactile cues in reported user experience

Comparison of User Experiences Based on Watching 360° Immersive Video and Reality – A Case Study of a Scooter Ride

This paper compares the user experiences (UXs) while riding a scooter on the road to watching a 360° immersive scooter ride video in a laboratory using a Head-mounted Display (HMD) projection system. The aim of this study is to determine whether watching through an HMD projection system produces similar feelings of attractiveness, practicality, and enjoyment for the riding experience as riding on a real scooter. The data were collected from an experiment involving a total of 59 individual scooter commuters. The participants were asked to watch a 360° immersive video and to complete a user experience questionnaire (UEQ). The results verified that a virtual reality (VR) service with an HMD and panoramic scooter riding video content may be used as an experience tool to create reality-like scooter riding experiences for the users. Furthermore, the important factors that influence a user’s continued usage of watching 360° immersive video services were found to be attractiveness and pragmatic quality. Based on these results, a number of suggestions are proposed for the design of related VR services to strengthen the advantages of 360° immersive video in simulated two-wheeler ride experiences and providing road safety education.</p

Building trust in autonomous vehicles: Role of virtual reality driving simulators in HMI design

The investigation of factors contributing at making humans trust Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) will play a fundamental role in the adoption of such technology. The user's ability to form a mental model of the AV, which is crucial to establish trust, depends on effective user-vehicle communication; thus, the importance of Human-Machine Interaction (HMI) is poised to increase. In this work, we propose a methodology to validate the user experience in AVs based on continuous, objective information gathered from physiological signals, while the user is immersed in a Virtual Reality-based driving simulation. We applied this methodology to the design of a head-up display interface delivering visual cues about the vehicle' sensory and planning systems. Through this approach, we obtained qualitative and quantitative evidence that a complete picture of the vehicle's surrounding, despite the higher cognitive load, is conducive to a less stressful experience. Moreover, after having been exposed to a more informative interface, users involved in the study were also more willing to test a real AV. The proposed methodology could be extended by adjusting the simulation environment, the HMI and/or the vehicle's Artificial Intelligence modules to dig into other aspects of the user experience

A critical practice-based exploration of interactive panoramas' role in helping to preserve cultural memory

I am enclosing the content of two DVDs which are integral part of the practice-based thesis.The rapid development of digital communication technologies in the 20th and 21st centuries has affected the way researchers look at ways memory – especially cultural memory – can be preserved and enhanced. State-of-the-art communication technologies such as the Internet or immersive environments support participation and interaction and transform memory into ‘prosthetic’ experience, where digital technologies could enable 'implantation' of events that have not actually been experienced. While there is a wealth of research on the preservation of public memory and cultural heritage sites using digital media, more can be explored on how these media can contribute to the cultivation of cultural memory. One of the most interesting phenomena related to this issue is how panoramas, which are immersive and have a well-established tradition in preserving memories, can be enhanced by recent digital technologies and image spaces. The emergence of digital panoramic video cameras and panoramic environments has opened up new opportunities for exploring the role of interactive panoramas not only as a documentary tool for visiting sites but mainly as a more complex technique for telling non-linear interactive narratives through the application of panoramic photography and panoramic videography which, when presented in a wrap-around environment, could enhance recalling. This thesis attempts to explore a way of preserving inspirational environments and memory sites in a way that combines panoramic interactive film and traversing the panoramic environment with viewing the photo-realistic panoramic content rather than computer-generated environment. This research is based on two case studies. The case study of Charles Church in Plymouth represents the topical approach to narrative and focuses on the preservation of the memory of the Blitz in Plymouth and the ruin of Charles Church which stands as a silent reminder of this event. The case study of Charles Causley reflects topographical approach where, through traversing the town of Launceston, viewers learn about Causley’s life and places that provided inspirations for his poems. The thesis explores through practice what can be done and reflects on positive and less positive aspects of preserving cultural memory in these case studies in a critical way. Therefore, the results and recommendations from this thesis can be seen as valuable contribution to the study of intermedia and cultural memory in general