Development of power-assisted transport wheelchair

Wheelchairs are one of the most common mobility aids for people who are not able to walk independently, which may result from aging, neurological or orthopedic diseases, accidents, and so on. As the problem of population aging is getting worse, the wheelchair users are increasing. However, not every person can operate the wheelchair by himself or herself instead relying on their caregivers. Yet the wheelchairs nowadays do not fully meet the caregivers' needs, and may cause difficulties in some circumstances such as ramps and may also harm the caregivers. From this point of view, we have proposed a transport wheelchair with a new algorithm to predict the caregiver's intention and follow them automatically. In this project, we discussing about a transport wheelchair following a caregiver by using a microcontroller, a laser rangefinder, and motor drivers to operate.