Quantitative Comparison of a Joystick and a Two-Switch Control Mode When Steering a Wheelchair through a Realistic Environment

Abstract

The following paper investigates the efficiency and the usability of two ways of steering a powered wheelchair, i.e., the joystick and a two-switch control mode. To yield a high internal validity of the results and receive data, which can be used for benchmarking, a repeated measurement design has been chosen and 23 participants steered the wheelchair in both control modes through a predetermined course. The resulting data shows impressively the superiority of the joystick mode and demonstrates that research on assistive technologies should focus on reducing the space required for rotating, the time required to reach a certain goal position, the number of input commands required to execute a behavior and also the usability especially of the two-switch control. Herewith, the current paper complements the existing case study reports and questionnaire data as the applied experimental set-up allows for tracing back the revealed effects on the manipulation of the control mode.