Haptic control for powered wheelchair driving assistance

For persons with motor disability, wheelchair driving is an essential activity. They should be able to accomplish this task easily and efficiently. However, in some cases, severe motor disabilities may generate symptoms such as tremor and spasma and will thus affect the driving ability of the person. The driving task may then become insecure and exhausting for the wheelchair user. In order to assist these persons in the control of powered wheelchairs, we propose to use haptic control devices that allow to feedback forces to the user's hand. This haptic feedback should allow immediate recognition of the free directions in the near environment and bring in easy and smooth handling of the control device through these free spaces.We carried out experiments on a simulator using haptic control devices on a powered wheelchair fitted with a range measurement sensor for obstacle detection. Results show strong interindividual differences of driving behavior, the force feedback acting in general positively on the control.