A Fuzzy Logic based control system for Electric Wheelchair obstacle avoidance

This paper proposes a shared-control system for electric wheelchair (EWC) to avoid obstacles with a fuzzy logic (FL) based strategy. A fuzzy logic controller is integrated into an existent electric wheelchair to decrease the risk of crashes and collisions while navigating in a crowded room. An Arduino micro-controller connected to 3 ultrasonic sensors detects distances to obstacles around the wheelchair within a radius of 90 degrees. It sends data to a Raspberry pi II microprocessor on which we have implemented our Fuzzy logic based algorithm of obstacle avoidance. The data resulting from the fuzzy algorithm control the wheelchair's linear acceleration. The software is implemented on the Unix Platform. 4 data sets are used to test the controller. Experimental results give us new adjusted acceleration values.