A decision making model for optimizing social relationship for side-by-side robotic wheelchairs in active mode

Abstract

Nowadays, not only the ability to navigate to destinations but also the ability to navigate in harmony in crowded environments is a crucial feature that helps mobile robots to be accepted in daily routines of humans. In the case of wheelchairs that can move in parallel to a caregiver (side-by-side), this requirement is more complex as the navigation should be comfortable to the wheelchair user, caregiver, as-well-as surrounding people. This study aims to propose a novel decision model for robotic wheelchairs for passing obstacles when moving side-by-side with a human. The proposed model was developed by studying human behavior.