Behavior-Based Indoor Navigation - Ambient Intelligence for Scientific Discovery - page 277

Fig. 8. Online built maps.
4 Behavior-Based Indoor Navigation
for a Smart Wheelchair
Smart electrically powered wheelchairs are used by severely motor-impaired peo-
ple that may experience diculties when driving standard, manual or electrically
powered wheelchairs. Smart wheelchairs are provided with computerized control
units and simple interfaces that assist the users with driving tasks [20]. While
the control stage is based on well-established Mobile Robotics and Automatic
Guided Vehicles techniques, the design of the adequate navigation system re-
quires significant research effort due to its crucial influence on the user interface
[2]. Smart wheelchairs are provided with elements (such as sensors, controllers,
processors) required to be considered as mobile robots. Therefore the previously
mentioned navigation techniques are fully applicable to these kind of systems.