Design and implementation of a low-cost Universal Control for intelligent electric wheelchairs

Electric wheelchairs are a fundamental tool for millions of people all over the world. Thanks to this type of wheelchairs persons who suffer from reduced mobility can go about their normal lives; they can move from place to place and be independent in their daily routines. However, there are still many groups of people whose mobility problems are precisely what impedes them from using a wheelchair. Numerous research works had been carried out with the aim of improving the quality of life of people who are bound to a wheelchair, focusing on the creation of novel control interfaces. Through these interfaces, wheelchair users can have control of it using their voice, simple gestures or eye movement. However, if we look objectively at these interfaces, they are all developed on the basis of a different control system, making it difficult to embed these solutions in real environments. Currently, there is no universal control device which would act as a link between the user's wheelchair and the developed control interfaces. The researches carried out up until now focus on the development of their own control boards for concrete wheelchair models, making it very difficult to implement these systems in real life due to the peculiarities of each model and manufacturer. In this work, we propose the design of a low-cost, universal control board for the control of the wheelchairs' trajectory, so that any systems integrator of control interface can use it for both research and the development of prototypes that will improve the quality of life in our society.