Wheelchair Door Negotiation Using Sensor-Based Motion Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current user control devices for personal vehicles lack the ability to automatically detect and respond to environmental features, such as obstacles and stairs, which limits their autonomy and safety in navigating complex environments.
Innovation Solution
A user control device equipped with a processor that receives user input and sensor data to generate movement commands, utilizing a point cloud library and simultaneous location and mapping to navigate through doors, stairs, and elevators, and store or recharge the vehicle, while avoiding obstacles.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Extent of automation
If a user control device for a personal vehicle is used, then the user can control the vehicle movement, but the device lacks automatic detection and response to environmental features like obstacles and stairs
Solution Approach 1:
The control device enables the vehicle to autonomously detect environmental features such as obstacles, stairs, doors, and elevators using sensors, and automatically generates and executes navigation commands without requiring constant user intervention. The system serves itself by processing sensor data and making autonomous navigation decisions.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces manual mechanical control with an automated electronic control system that uses sensors to detect environmental features and a processor to generate navigation commands. This substitution of mechanical user control with electronic automation resolves the contradiction by enabling automatic detection while managing system complexity through integrated processing.
2Adaptability or versatility
If the vehicle navigates through complex environments with obstacles and stairs, then the vehicle's versatility is improved, but the safety and reliability requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The control device continuously receives feedback from sensors detecting environmental features such as obstacles, stairs, doors, and elevators. This feedback loop enables the system to monitor its environment in real-time and adjust navigation commands accordingly, improving both versatility in navigating complex environments and reliability through continuous environmental awareness and adaptive response.
3Ease of operation
If the vehicle autonomously navigates and avoids obstacles, then the user convenience is improved, but the processing power and computational requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The control device performs preliminary actions by pre-processing sensor data to identify environmental features such as obstacles, stairs, doors, and elevators before navigation is required. This preliminary detection and classification of environmental features reduces the computational burden during actual navigation, enabling user convenience through autonomous operation while managing processing power requirements through advance preparation.
Data Source
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AI summary
There is described a method for negotiating, in a transporter, a door including at least one handle, a door swing, and a doorway, the method comprising: receiving and segmenting environmental information from sensors mounted on the transporter, the environmental information including geometry of the transporter; identifying at least one plane within the segmented environmental information; identifying the door within the at least one plane; measuring, based on the segmented environmental information, the door; providing a first movement command for moving the transporter for access to the at least one handle; providing a second movement command, wherein, if the door swing is towards the transporter, the second movement command is a command to move the transporter away from the door as the door opens by a distance based on the measured door; and providing a third movement command to move the transporter forward through the doorway. There is also described a transporter for negotiating a door.