Wheelchair technology advances
Article Summary.
During a winter afternoon on February (May 2001), a wheelchair equipped with sensors and a computer moved crossed a hectic lounge of a railway station in Ulm, Germany, avoiding commuters and luggage. From the other end of the hectic lounge of that wheelchair, a group of engineers looked carefully as a person moved towards that wheelchair. The wheelchair stopped and move in a different direction (right), stopped again and turned left as the man danced around, trying to prevent the wheelchair from crossing over. Finally, the man on the wheelchair voiced out in a polite manner to ask the guy blocking his path to give way to him.
The engineers (Erwin Prassler and his associates) are creating the independent wheelchair, known as MAid (for mobility aid) for the sake of people facing several disabilities such as survivors of car crash, polio patients and victims with several sclerosis. Maid’s ultimate version will have the capability of slide through busy environment; no matter it is a Cairo bazaar or a New York subway station.
The user will use voice-recognition system to control the wheelchair. The user can also move to the specific position and direction using a touch panel that shows a map of the surrounding environment. This can be done by either touching the display or by voice command.
This specific wheelchair has the capability of analyzing the environment and shows the best terrain for the user to move around. To scan the locations of close by objects, a laser radar will be send out light pulses and then it will record and take the time of its reflection to be received. Other sensors help to keep track of the wheelchair’s own position and velocity.
By contrast of multiple successful radar calculation, the navigation systems classify non-moving and moving objects in the environment. The comparison shows how fast an object moves and from which direction. The computer that is built in can figure out any moving objects that collision course
During a winter afternoon on February (May 2001), a wheelchair equipped with sensors and a computer moved crossed a hectic lounge of a railway station in Ulm, Germany, avoiding commuters and luggage. From the other end of the hectic lounge of that wheelchair, a group of engineers looked carefully as a person moved towards that wheelchair. The wheelchair stopped and move in a different direction (right), stopped again and turned left as the man danced around, trying to prevent the wheelchair from crossing over. Finally, the man on the wheelchair voiced out in a polite manner to ask the guy blocking his path to give way to him.
The engineers (Erwin Prassler and his associates) are creating the independent wheelchair, known as MAid (for mobility aid) for the sake of people facing several disabilities such as survivors of car crash, polio patients and victims with several sclerosis. Maid’s ultimate version will have the capability of slide through busy environment; no matter it is a Cairo bazaar or a New York subway station.
The user will use voice-recognition system to control the wheelchair. The user can also move to the specific position and direction using a touch panel that shows a map of the surrounding environment. This can be done by either touching the display or by voice command.
This specific wheelchair has the capability of analyzing the environment and shows the best terrain for the user to move around. To scan the locations of close by objects, a laser radar will be send out light pulses and then it will record and take the time of its reflection to be received. Other sensors help to keep track of the wheelchair’s own position and velocity.
By contrast of multiple successful radar calculation, the navigation systems classify non-moving and moving objects in the environment. The comparison shows how fast an object moves and from which direction. The computer that is built in can figure out any moving objects that collision course