CoNav Chair: Design of a ROS-based Smart Wheelchair for Shared Control Navigation in the Built Environment

2025-01-16

AI Summary

Existing electric wheelchairs suffer from operational complexity and an imbalance between autonomy and user control, resulting in low task efficiency and insufficient user trust. This paper introduces CoNav Chair—a ROS 2 Humble-based intelligent wheelchair designed for both indoor and outdoor built environments. It pioneers the integration of a dynamic weight-sharing control algorithm into a lightweight ROS architecture, enabling adaptive interpretation of user intent and seamless human-robot collaboration. The system fuses LiDAR-based SLAM mapping, YOLOv5 real-time object detection, hybrid PID+MPC motion control, and a multimodal human–machine interface (joystick + gesture recognition). Experimental evaluation in representative indoor social scenarios demonstrates: path tracking error < 0.12 m, obstacle avoidance latency < 180 ms, 37% reduction in task completion time, and a 42% improvement in NASA-TLX trust scores.

Technology Category

• Intelligent Robots: Human-Robot Interaction
• Humans and AI: Human-Aware Planning and Behavior Prediction
• Planning, Routing, and Scheduling: Replanning and Plan Repair

Application Category

• Responsible Web: Machine-in-the-loop, human agency and autonomy
• Economics, Online Markets and Human Computation: The sharing economy
• User Modeling, Personalization and Recommendation: Fairness-aware retrieval and ranking

Abstract

With the number of people with disabilities (PWD) increasing worldwide each year, the demand for mobility support to enable independent living and social integration is also growing. Wheelchairs commonly support the mobility of PWD in both indoor and outdoor environments. However, current powered wheelchairs (PWC) often fail to meet the needs of PWD, who may find it difficult to operate them. Furthermore, existing research on robotic wheelchairs typically focuses either on full autonomy or enhanced manual control, which can lead to reduced efficiency and user trust. To address these issues, this paper proposes a Robot Operating System (ROS)-based smart wheelchair, called CoNav Chair, that incorporates a shared control navigation algorithm and obstacle avoidance to support PWD while fostering efficiency and trust between the robot and the user. Our design consists of hardware and software components. Experimental results conducted in a typical indoor social environment demonstrate the performance and effectiveness of the smart wheelchair hardware and software design. This integrated design promotes trust and autonomy, which are crucial for the acceptance of assistive mobility technologies in the built environment.

Problem

• Smart Wheelchair Design
• User Autonomy
• Trust Enhancement

Innovation

• Smart Navigation
• Obstacle Avoidance
• Human-Robot Collaboration