Wheelchair Conversion & Automation

Human mobility is a fundamental quality of life need. Persons with mobility impairment can range from full mobility to complete paralysis, which leads to reduced quality of life. Wheelchairs, dating back to before the sixteenth century, have been vital to providing a method of movement for limited mobility individuals while helping to reduce the dependency on external assistance. As a result, a large portion of the current population depends on wheelchair accessibility. This paper presents the conversion of manual electric wheelchairs to autonomously driven wheelchairs, developing a testbed for implementing unique and novel path planning and localization indoors. The results depict different implementations for autonomous driving.