People who are forced to use a wheelchair to move around encounter many physical impediments to do so, and one of them is driving their chair through spaces where there are many other people, something that happens in almost all cities.
That is why I liked the idea of this project supported by the European Community within the Horizon 2020 Program. It is about having a robotic wheelchair that is capable of moving smoothly and safely in environments where there is a large number of people walking around
Taking into account the large number of autonomous movement projects (cars, delivery robots, etc…), part of these technologies can be used to apply them to “old wheelchairs” and make them work almost autonomously avoiding obstacles found by people who use them in their day to day.
The researchers have selected a robot called Qolo ( Quality of Life with Locomotion ) developed in Japan to use as a means of departure.
It consists of two motorized wheels and an exoskeleton to place the disabled person almost vertically so that they are positioned higher and have better control of their surroundings.
The robot (equipped with Lidar and other sensors) is capable of "seeing" 360 degrees around it, and detecting possible risks of collision with respect to its progress. It develops a speed of up to 6 km/h, which is the equivalent of a person walking at a good pace, and it is programmed to avoid obstacles when it detects them instead of stopping; for if he stood in the middle of a crowd of people, people might bump into him and the result might be more troublesome.
The robot's computer system analyzes the possible routes of the people around it to avoid colliding with them, but we all know how unpredictable people can be when we walk, especially in the vicinity of a shop window.
Researchers still have a big job to do to get Qolo moving safely through cities, but I'm sure they'll get there sooner rather than later. At the moment, for testing, they have put a bumper on the front, which I think is a good idea. Safety first.
A video can be seen at: https://youtu.be/FUL_qonEEHI
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