Robotic wheelchair looking at all people with multiple sensors

摘要

With the increasing number of senior citizens, there is a growing demand for human-friendly wheelchairs as mobility aids. Thus, several robotic wheelchairs have been proposed. However, they consider friendliness only to their users. Machines like wheelchairs interact with various people other than their users. They must consider friendliness to all these people. This paper presents a robotic wheelchair that cares for all relevant people: users, pedestrians, and caregivers, by looking at these people with multiple sensors. It looks at the user's face and observes their direction. The user can steer the wheelchair just by looking in his/her desired direction. It looks at pedestrians and changes the method of avoiding them depending on whether or not they are noticing it. In addition, it looks at the caregiver when he/she is with it and keeps moving with him/her.