Reference path description for an autonomous powered wheelchair

This paper presents an overview of the methods used with on experimental prototype of on autonomous powered wheelchair. The paper focuses on the importance of describing reference paths as continuous (or piecewise-continuous) geometric entities, rather than as a function of time or a series of discrete points. Furthermore, the importance of using the current estimated position and orientation of the wheelchair in order to select the reference point on the path is examined.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">></ETX>