A Multi-Modal Human Machine Interface for Controlling a Smart Wheelchair

As the number of disabled people all over the world is increasing very fast, the role of an electric wheelchair is becoming crucial to improve the mobility for them. Independent mobility is a vital aspect of self-respect and plays an important role in the life of a disabled person. The smart wheelchair is an endeavor to provide an self-supporting mobility to those people who are not able to move freely. Typical electric powered wheelchairs are usually controlled by the traditional joysticks which cannot fulfill the needs of a person who has motor disabilities and some specific types of disabilities like paralysis who can only move their eyes. This paper aims to develop a multi-modal human machine interface for the larger domain of disabled persons to control the wheelchair efficiently. The interface comprises joystick, smart hand-glove, head movement tracker and eye tracker. The system presented in this paper can support a wide variety of users with different types of disabilities.