Virtual environment for smart wheelchair simulation

Abstract

The difficulty of designing equipment for individuals who have some degree of special needs is that each individual has a unique clinical picture, hampering the development of new technologies. In this sense, this article explores the ways in which the design and evaluation of virtual devices can be combined with new prototyping techniques to create and develop equipment that will allow wheelchair accessibility to be improved. To this end, a computer vision control structure and a virtual software were created to assist in the development of a wheelchair coupling project, in order to study and evaluate the functional characteristics of the device. In this way, the present work incorporates a virtual system that represents the automation and mechanical design of new wheelchairs. Thus defining a prototyping methodology with the aid of virtual environments, based on movement controls adaptive to the parameters stipulated in real environments. Therefore, the present work results in a simulator for an electric wheelchair docking platform for multiple disabilities, which allows the validation of the project, the acquisition of development needs, the proposition of improvements in the preliminary acquisition platform and a system of computer vision control.