Publication
On the Clinical Evaluation of Smart Driving Assistance for Power Wheelchairs
Christian Mandel; Thomas Röfer; Insa Lohmüller
In: Proceedings of the IROS 2012 Workshop on Progress, Challenges and Future Perspectives in Navigation and Manipulation Assistance for Robotic Wheelchairs. IROS Workshop: Progress, Challenges and Future Perspectives in Navigation and Manipulation Assistance for Robotic Wheelchairs, October 12, Vilamoura, Algarve, Portugal, IEEE, 2012.
Abstract
The success of assistive robotic systems in the field of rehabilitation and compensation of neurological disabilities strongly depends on their balance between deploying supporting technologies and maintaining human independence. This work examines the impact of a navigation solution for an assistive robotic wheelchair, covering the requirements given above from both sides. The system, i.e. a smart driving assistant, supports the user in controlling his/her wheelchair by correcting insecure commands. It is evaluated within a clinical study, recruiting ten subjects in two groups (i.e. group A with driving assistance, and group B without). Participants from both groups apply a common hand-joystick and a newly-developed head-joystick within a standardized wheelchair parcours. Findings indicate a slight decrease in average speed and smoothness of the driven trajectories when performing with driving assistance, but a huge decrease in terms of average number of collisions. Finally we show that under a decreased level of cognitive challenges when performing with driving assistance, the average number of falsely executed, neglected, or aborted obstacle stations in the course stays constant for both groups.