Electric wheelchair control for people with locomotor disabilities using eye movements

Abstract

The paper describes a control method of a robot, by means of an electric wheelchair, dedicated to severely disabled persons, equipped with a low-cost web camera, using only eye movements and gaze direction. The camera is positioned in front of the user's right eye so that the iris is captured as it moves. This movement is interpreted to obtain the command which is send to the wheelchairs actuators. This command can be “FORWARD”, “LEFT” or “RIGHT”, when the eye (the iris) is detected on center, left and right respectively. For safety reasons, emergency stop, with the command “STOP”, is caused by failure to detect the iris. This command is generated when the user encounters a close obstacle or when he wishes to shut down the system.