Smart Obstacle Avoidance Wheelchair

Abstract

Many people with disabilities find it difficult or impossible to use powered wheelchair independently. Obstacle avoidance wheelchair is a very good solution to help handicapped people who are unable to operate classical electrical wheelchair by themselves in their daily activities. Our project‘s aim is to develop obstacle avoidance powered wheelchair which is intelligent enough to avoid obstacles, help and provide mobility to handicapped people who find it difficult or impossible to use a manual wheelchair. The implemented wheelchair accepts two forms of inputs which are microphone and joystick. It also uses sensors like ultrasonic and infrared sensors to detect obstacles. The controller used is Arduino mega to send and receive signals to/from the components and raspberry pi to connect the input devices to it. By using DC motor as an actuator to convert electrical power into mechanical motion. Upon testing, the wheelchair was found to meet the designed behavior, so a real progress toward better treatment and better outcomes provide the handicapped users with some level of independence and safety by avoiding obstacles without placing the person or others at unreasonable risk.