Collaborative Control for a Robotic Wheelchair: Evaluation of Performance, Attention, and Workload

Citations Over TimeTop 1% of 2012 papers

Abstract

Powered wheelchair users often struggle to drive safely and effectively and, in more critical cases, can only get around when accompanied by an assistant. To address these issues, we propose a collaborative control mechanism that assists users as and when they require help. The system uses a multiple-hypothesis method to predict the driver's intentions and, if necessary, adjusts the control signals to achieve the desired goal safely. The main emphasis of this paper is on a comprehensive evaluation, where we not only look at the system performance but also, perhaps more importantly, characterize the user performance in an experiment that combines eye tracking with a secondary task. Without assistance, participants experienced multiple collisions while driving around the predefined route. Conversely, when they were assisted by the collaborative controller, not only did they drive more safely but also they were able to pay less attention to their driving, resulting in a reduced cognitive workload. We discuss the importance of these results and their implications for other applications of shared control, such as brain-machine interfaces, where it could be used to compensate for both the low frequency and the low resolution of the user input.

Related Papers

• → Wheelchair Users Are Not Necessarily Wheelchair Bound(2002)47 cited
• → Study on Characteristics of the Wheelchair-User Combination(2016)3 cited
• → 2A1-T01 Control Method of a Wheelchair based on the Relative Position between a Wheelchair and its Caregiver(Cooperation between Human and Machine)(2014)
• → Wheelchair Driving and Body Weight Shift : Measurements for One Hand Use Wheelchair(2002)
• → W.A.R. – Wheelchair Activity Recognition(2023)