A Novel IOT Based Smart Wheelchair Design for Cerebral Palsy Patients

Abstract

Several patients face Cerebral Palsy. Such debilitating diseases impede motor control and make it difficult for them to operate traditional electric wheelchairs. Existing models of smart wheelchairs accommodate these issues to a certain extent but fail to deliver a solution for patients to use the wheelchairs completely autonomously. This paper proposes a novel model for a cost-effective smart wheelchair that takes simple gestures as input for movement, along with several quality-of-life and assistive modules such as vitals monitoring and voice memo support for patients suffering from memory loss, along with obstacle detection to ensure complete safety of the patient regardless of the terrain. The paper discusses the various modules present in the wheelchair, elaborates upon the algorithm used for input detection and calculation, and finally, the implementation of each module. Lastly, the paper enlists comparisons between existing smart wheelchair models and the proposed model and lists out its strengths, weaknesses and states its findings from the proposed system's results.