[Designer_Matt]

Hi All,

My name is Matthew O' Donnell and i am currently studying 'Electronics and Computing Systems' at the University of Ulster - Magee campus in Northern Ireland. I am currently in the initial stages of my final year, and as a final year project, i have been asked to modify a power wheelchair.
The wheelchair already contains voice activation controlled via a laptop, but i intend to ad ultrasonic sensors to the wheelchair which is capable of preventing the wheelchair colliding with an object.

I aim to combine both the voice control with the sensors to assist the severly disabled who have no movement from the neck down.

I would appreciate any feedback from people with a perspective view of what i am trying to design.

Many Thanks,

Matthew O' Donnell

[HiltonP]

Points I would wish to see addressed include :

- how will the voice activation operate in a noisey environment,
i.e. other voices, busy street, shopping mall, etc?

- make the object detection switch-off-able,
sometines one needs to be able to drive right up against something.

[edlee]

That was an excellent point.

All chairs must operate within the home/office/school environment, that is, they will continuously be in very close proximity to objects/people. The desired distance from those objects will change from minute to minute.

Often, we even need to "bump" things out of the way, or open doors, away from us, by pushing.

I think we all, particularly the class you are designing for, would be better served by providing us with information about what is beside and behind us. It could certainly be done with mirrors, but would be more " classy" using radar and/or infrared sensors.

Hope I've helped.
ed

[OmniLee]

Something I'd like to see:



-consider the range of the wheelchair, especially with the additions

increase the range



-what powersupply is being used

can a different form be utilized



-weight caused by items used to make the wheelchair a power chair

what can you change to make the wheelchair lighter



Remember, it's not just the bells and whistles you can add to the chair that will improve it. Sometimes you need to redesign the box.