Integrated Design of a Smart Wheelchair for People with Disabilities
Year: 2026
Type: conference-paper
Abstract: This paper presents the integrated design of SPARC (Smart Platooning Autonomous Robot Chair), a low-cost, lightweight smart wheelchair developed to enhance mobility for people with disabilities in indoor environments such as hospitals, airports, and assisted-care facilities. The proposed system addresses key limitations of existing smart wheelchairs—including high cost, excessive weight, limited modularity, and sensor over-specification—through a carefully optimized sensor suite tailored for indoor navigation requirements. SPARC integrates an embedded PC with ROS2 (Robot Operating System), four lightweight Tmini-Pro 2D LiDARs distributed to provide 360-degree environmental coverage, a RealSense D435i RGB-D camera mounted above the user for visual tracking applications, and a Pixhawk 2.4.8 IMU positioned near the center of gravity for accurate orientation and acceleration measurements. Experimental validation demonstrates the effectiveness of this sensor configuration through a visual servoing application involving a fleet of three wheelchairs tracking AprilTags. Results confirm that the distributed sensor architecture successfully captures dynamic multi-agent interactions by measuring other physical parameters using encoders, LiDARs, and IMUs. Those lightweight, optimally placed sensors can deliver performance comparable to heavier, more expensive alternatives. SPARC’s modular, cost-effective design could support other smart functionalities in the future, such as obstacle avoidance, cooperative control, and AI-driven path planning.
Language: English
Subfield: Occupational Therapy
Field: Health Professions
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W7204192000