Assistive Robot for Mobility Enhancement of Impaired Students for Barrier-Free Education: A Proof of Concept

Smart wheelchairs are in the category of assistive robots, which interact physically and/or non-physically with people with physical disabilities to extend their autonomy. Smart wheelchairs are assistive robots that enhance mobility, and can be especially useful for improving access to university premises. This paper proposes a smart wheelchair that can be integrated with an academic management system to enable students who have serious leg problems and cannot walk on their own to reach any academic building or room on a university campus autonomously. The proposed smart wheelchair receives information from the academic management system about the spaces on campus, the lesson schedule, the office hours of lecturers, and so on. Students can select the desired task from the user interface. The smart wheelchair can then guide the student autonomously to the desired point of interest, while planning the best barrier-free route inside the campus/building and, simultaneously, avoiding fixed and moving obstacles. The assistive robot has localization and navigation capabilities, which allow students to move about campus freely and autonomously, and benefit from a barrier-free education.