Vision Based Tracking and Interception of Moving Target by Mobile Robot Using Fuzzy Control

This paper presents a simple Fuzzy Logic Controllers (FLC) based control strategy to solve the tracking and interception problem of a moving target by a mobile robot equipped with a pan-tilt camera. Before sending commands to the mobile robot, video acquisition and image processing techniques are employed to estimate the target’s position in the image plane. The estimate coordinates are used by a fuzzy logic controller to control the pan-tilt camera angles. The objective is to ensure that the moving target is always at the middle of the camera image plane. A second FLC is used to control the robot orientation and to guarantee the tracking and interception of the target. The proposed pan-tilt camera and robot orientation controllers’ efficiency has been validated by simulation under Matlab using Virtual Reality Toolbox

Gyro-Accelerometer based Control of an Intelligent Wheelchair

This paper presents a free-hand interface to control an electric wheelchair using the head gesture for people with severe disabilities i.e. multiple sclerosis, quadriplegic patients and old age people. The patient head acceleration and rotation rate are used to control the intelligent wheelchair. The patient head gesture is detected using accelerometer and gyroscope sensors embedded on a single board MPU6050. The MEMS sensors outputs are combined using Kalman filter as sensor fusion to build a high accurate orientation sensor. The system uses an Arduino mega as microcontroller to perform data processing, sensor fusion and joystick emulation to control the intelligent wheelchair and HC-SR04 ultrasonic sensors to provide safe navigation.The wheelchair can be controlled using two modes. In the first mode, the wheelchair is controlled by the usual joystick. In the second mode, the patient uses his head motion to control the wheelchair. The principal advantage of the proposed approach is that the switching between the two control modes is soft, straightforward and transparent to the user

Multimodal Control of an Intelligent Wheelchair (Commande Multimodale d’un Fauteuil Roulant Intelligent)

An intelligent wheelchair (IW) is a standard electric wheelchair (EW) to which a computer and a collection of sensors have been added, giving the user, who cannot use the usual joystick, the ability to control it without touching any physical device. In the recent years, several research projects around the world have been focused on the development of IW prototypes. However, the adaptation of their user interface to the patient’s abilities is often a neglected research topic. The majority of the interfaces are adapted to a specific user group. This thesis presents the design and implementation of a multimodal control system for IW to assist people with different levels of disabilities. The system is composed of an EW equipped with necessary electronics (microcontrollers, sensors, laptop, microphone and camera) to ensure safe mobility and ease of operation. In order to control the movement of the wheelchair, firstly, one of the control modes (manual, vision based method, sensors based method, or speech based method) is selected by the user according to his/her abilities. Then, depending on the controlling command (Forward, Backward, Right, Left, or Stop) the microcontroller generates specific signals to emulate the joystick for monitoring the control board of the wheelchair. The principal advantage of the proposed system is that the switching between the control modes is soft, straightforward and transparent to the user. The experimental tests applied to this wheelchair in real environment, proved the feasibility and efficiency of our multimodal system