Citation

Chien JC, Lu BY, Lai JS, Luh J, Chong FC, Kuo TS. Disabil. Rehabil. Assist. Technol. 2010; 5(3): 223-229.

Affiliation

Department of Electrical Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2010, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.3109/17483100903437641

PMID

20415531

Abstract

Powered wheelchairs are an important mobility aid for the elderly and for persons with disability. According to World Health Organization statistics, most of the accidents were due to personal mistakes; if there is an auto-navigating system such as auxiliary, mistaken manipulation will decrease efficiency. This study attempted to improve the global positioning system (GPS) navigation of electric powered wheelchairs (EPWs) through the addition of an electric compass (EC) and tested the navigation of EPWs with EC-aided and non-EC-aided GPS navigation along a 25 m road. According to these tests, the use of the EC significantly reduces the errors in GPS navigation during movements such as go straight ahead, turn right and turn left. Therefore, the navigation reduced the error of the expected trajectories with the EC-aided navigation.

Language: en