Robotic wheelchair based on observations of both user and environment

With the increase in the number of senior citizens, there is a growing demand for human-friendly wheelchairs as mobility aids. To meet this need, we proposed a robotic wheelchair which can be controlled by turning our face in the direction where we would like to go. Although it can be used easily, there is a problem that unintentional movements of our face may interfere with the wheelchair motion. The paper presents our new version of the wheelchair improved by observing both user and environment. It effectively integrates autonomous capabilities and the interface by face direction. It uses the sensor information obtained for autonomous navigation to solve the problem with the control by face direction. Also, if it can understand the user's intentions from observing the face, it chooses an appropriate autonomous navigation function to reduce the user's burden of operation.