Implementation of Self-Controlled Wheelchairs based on Joystick, Gesture Motion and Voice Recognition

A self-controlled automatic wheelchair extremely important for physically challenged people. In this paper, we have presented, the design and implementation details of three schemes for a self-controlled wheelchair and discussed their comparative analysis. These designs include: a) Joystick Controlled Wheelchair b) Gesture Controlled Wheelchair and c) Voice Controlled Wheelchair. The first scheme presents a prototype of movement of the wheelchair using a joystick. The second scheme uses a pseudo glove carrying an accelerometer as an input to the wheelchair. The last scheme uses a HC-05 Bluetooth Module and Bluetooth Controller mobile application for the working of the wheelchair. All these schemes are implemented using an Arduino UNO microcontroller board. Arduino Integrated Development Environment (IDE) is used for developing the necessary software. The UPPAAL software is used for verification of the design. Various test cases are applied to the prototype models under varying environmental conditions. Based on these test results, a combination of voice controlled as well as gesture controlled wheelchair is proposed and designed for obtaining higher efficiency. Besides wheelchairs, these prototype designs can be extended for several other application areas.