Navigational Support for Robotic Wheelchair Platforms: An Approach that Combines Vision and Range Sensors

Abstract

An approach towards providing advanced navigational support to robotic wheelchair platforms is presented in this paper. Contemporary methods that are employed in robotic wheelchairs are based on the information provided by range sensors and its appropriate exploitation by means of obstacle avoidance techniques. However, since range sensors cannot support a detailed environment representation, these methods fail to provide advanced navigational assistance, unless the environment is appropriately regulated (e.g. with the introduction of beacons). In order to avoid any modifications to the environment, we propose an alternative approach that employs computer vision techniques which facilitate space perception and navigation. Computer vision has not been introduced todate in rehabilitation robotics, since the former is not mature enough to meet the needs of this sensitive application. However, in the proposed approach, stable techniques are exploited that facilitate reliable, automatic nav..