A Performant Low Cost Wheelchair Simulator for Rehabilitation Planning

Iadaloharivola Randria1,2, Fernando Ceal Romero3, Patrick Abellard2, Mohamed Moncef Ben Khelifa2, Alexandre Abellard2, Pascal Ramanantsizehena2 1 HANDIBIO EA4322, Universit du Sud Toulon-Var, France 2 SIG, Ecole Suprieure Polytechnique dAntananarivo, Madagascar 3 ENSTA, Ecole Nationale Suprieure des Techniques Avances, Paris, France {iadaloharivola.randria, abellard, khelifa, alexandre.abellard}@univ-tln.fr, cenalromero@gmail.com, pramanantsizehena@moov.mg

Abstract- The objective of the work partially described in this paper is to reduce the situation of handicap of a person by enabling him/her to access (and/or to recover) some levels of autonomy thanks to a safe electric wheelchair. The problems concern the driving of this complex help by an operator whose capacities are reduced by the handicap in co-operation with the system. It is thus necessary to devise training tools in order to supplement the appropriation by helping the patient in his/her process of accommodation. It is the main function of the tool ISIDORE (assistance Interface for SImulation, DecisiOnmaking and REhabilitation). I. INTRODUCTION

Experimentation

Decision-making Aid

Rehabilitation

Evaluation

Correction

Simulation

Several simulation tools for wheelchair driving have been developped these recent years Only one is available as a commercial product, while the others are still prototypes mainly developped in research laboratories [1]. All of them have functionalities of a wide variety, but none of them put together all functions and equipments necessary to enable a safe wheelchair navigation adapted to the user disabilities. In order to find a satisfying solution to this problem, we developed a tool in our laboratory called ISIDORE. The advantages relative to the training on a wheelchair driving simulator are numerous: absence of risks for the users [2], reproducibility of situations, controls of experimental parameters, time execution improvements and reduction of the experimental costs [3]. Moreover, it is easy to reshape the environmental conditions so as to properly evaluate the behaviour of the patient facing a new driving situation. In addition, a good system should enable to help an expert (doctor, responsible, decision maker...) in order to deliver or not the attribution of an electric wheelchair. In this aim, ISIDORE has been developped in our laboratory with three main functions (Fig. 1). The main idea is to identify the essential parameters which make possible to monitor the degree of appropriation of the wheelchair [4], the control of navigation [5], and to give precise information to the expert in his/her decision to authorize the attribution of a wheelchair to a patient.

Fig. 1. ISIDORE basic functions.

This decision can also depend on precise equipment in terms of safety sensors (number and locations). The goal is to check out if the wheelchair equipped with these sensors is safe enough for navigating into the 3D virtual world, and if the training on simulator is well transferred on a real system. In this aim, the interest is to check if the results obtained in reality and virtual environment are comparable,as handicap is a domain for which the experiments are expensive and very specific [6]. Virtual reality techniques are very interesting for rehabilitation by taking into account the progressions/regressions [7] [8]. II. METHOD A. Principle The trajectory of the patient on the wheelchair is obtained by simulation and is compared to an optimized trajectory resulting from software-computing [9]. Fig. 2 gives four examples of trajectories. A starting and an ending point are indicated to the user. Given these points and the building map, the simulator computes an optimized trajectory in terms of travel length and safety distances, thanks to shortest path algorithms such as A* or a genetic algorithm-based approach depending

navigation [12]. Three modes of navigation are made available to the user : - manual: the user has a complete control on the movement of the wheelchair. The visual and sound assistance are available if he selected them so as to detect close obstacles. - assisted : the system proposes the user to switch to the automatic mode when it detects a danger or no user reaction in a determined lapse of time. The user can decide at any time to take control again of the wheelchair. - automatic : the user lets the wheelchair automatically following the optimal trajectory from any point to any point. It is proposed after a period of inactivity from the user since it probably means a loss of spatialization or a reflexion on the direction to take. Fig. 3 sums up ISIDORE structure.
Fuzzy control Decision support Movement to perform Optimized trajectory Trajectory differences Allowing driving of equipped wheelchair

Adding safety sensors

Perturbations : - mobile obstacles - inattention Corrections and assistance (visual, sound)

+
Environment 3D modeling

+ +

Equipped wheelchair

Manual control Assisted control Automatic control

User

Therapist rehabilitation

Fig. 3. ISIDORE block diagram. Fig. 2. Trajectories examples: A: Difficulties of frontal distances appreciation. B: Difficulties of right distances appreciation. C: Optimal trajectory. D: Difficulties of left distances appreciation.

on the navigation assistance conditions [10]. The environment is modeled and partitioned into grid or zones (cf. Section III). The optimized trajectory is then compared to the user trajectory. A fuzzy controller deduces from these differences if there is a need to add safety sensors (see more details in II.B). Furthermore, the difference between trajectories as well as the proximity of obstacles activates different kinds of assistances (lights, sounds, 2D map, or virtual guide following the optimal trajectory). The rehabilitation therapist has there two kinds of trajectories he can visually and numerically compare in order to take the best decision possible concerning progressions/regressions of the user and also the decision to let him/her drive a wheelchair in real life and not only in simulations [11]. The right block on Fig. 3 is the supervision block, which enables an intelligent and collaborative human machine

B. The fuzzy system As previously written, the differences between the optimized trajectory and the real one constitute the entries of a fuzzy controller which provides indications to the expert in order to constitute a decision-making aid on the minimum equipment about sensors (places, number, sensitivity) ensuring a safe navigation [13]. These corrections are introduced into the simulator, primarily in the form of a selfadaptation of the width of the way to be followed for each section of the trajectory (Fig. 4) and by adjustment of the sensitivity of the sensors. The system carries out a quantified evaluation between expected navigation and the users current trajectory. The fuzzy controller is a system of intuitive modeling resulting from fuzzy logic. It contains simple rules of the form "IF A is X THEN B is Y". They are members of a membership function (X and Y). The fuzzy controller also consists in an inference engine. For this purpose, the selected variables are:

User trajectory

Computing reference trajectory

Fig. 6. Fuzzy controller aided decision making

Fig. 4. Interface ISIDORE steps.

posFauteuilTraj: the wheelchair position compared with the ideal trajectory posObsFauteuil: the position of the nearest obstacle compared with the wheelchair position disObsFauteuil: the distance between the nearest obstacle and the wheelchair. Fig. 5 and 6 respectively show the membership of the linguistic variable posFauteuilTraj and the complete fuzzy controller. The three variables lead to suggestions, with the use of the inference engine, help with the decision-making and new sensors possible addition/activation.

The rules applied in the fuzzy controller are rather simple (Fig. 7) and give indications on the safety sensors to be added on the wheelchair. Once these sensors are installed on the virtual wheelchair, new assessments can be led to check if the expected results are effective before any material implementaton.

Fig. 7. Rules view for the aided decision-making and for the rehabilitation.

C. Corrections and system updates The results of the fuzzy controller propose decision-making aids to the expert. Thus, he/she can validate the driving license, if the required sensors are installed and the necessary information feedbacks activated.
Fig. 5. Membership function of the variable posFauteuilTraj.

We can actually activate a maximum of six sensors which are: frontal (one), left sided (two), right sided (two) and back (one) (Fig. 8). Each sensor may be coupled with a vocal warning signal. It will then be possible to draw the attention of a patient about obstacles if the expert considers it necessary, with the assistance of the fuzzy controller.

Fig. 10. 3D virtual environment and feedback information

Fig. 8. Sensors positions and range

As far as the system is centered on the user and the expert, we take into account the users remarks in our implementation scheme [14] [15]. Corrections should be rather easy to perform (computer design and programming rather than physical reshape). It is therefore possible to monitor the usability/acceptability of the system [16]. III. ASSISTIVE TOOLS

The user moves into the virtual world via the wheelchair lever. The speed and direction information are not taken directly from the lever, as the platform has been designed to be used with any kind of electric wheelchairs, hence the constrainst of not dismantling anything on the wheelchair. Information are thus indirectly taken from the wheels movement thanks to incremental encoders placed at the contact of each wheel. The patient initially carries out a way prescribed by the expert. The course is preset to answer interrogations of the expert on the residual capacities of the patient. The trajectory thus carried out is compared with an "ideal" trajectory, resulting from an algorithmic calculation (Fig. 11)

The ISIDORE prototype is shown on Fig. 9. It proposes a guided training to the patient. It acts as a help to piloting due to additional information feedbacks : colored lights, sounds, 2D map and virtual guide (Fig. 10).

Fig. 11. Example of navigation (solid line : optimal trajectory, dashed line : user trajectory, red circles: collisions)

Fig. 9. ISIDORE prototype.

In a known environment as a hospital, an associative center or a house, the search of the optimal way can be done in several manners [17] [18]. In general, in this case, one can proceed in two different ways [19], thanks to the knowledge of each obstacle position [20] [21]: an exploration according to a network (grid) or an exploration according to heuristics without grid.

In a previous study [22], we already highlighted the advantages of the grid free context in order to devise the optimal trajectory. The difference compared with what we adopted in this work is that the current context is even more complex than the others considered before [23] [24]. The choice of the genetic algorithms within the grid free framework results from a comparison of some basic approaches: The simplest, but not the most effective, is to go towards the goal while following a straight line. Any time one faces an obstacle, one circumvents it and continues the way towards the goal, which can lead to the risk not to find the optimal way (random trace, simple trace, robust trace). Within a gridded environment, we can quote some basic approaches from the graph theory like the Depth-First Search, the Breadth-First Search, the A* algorithm, the MooreDijkstra algorithm. The neural approach is different [25] [26]. It is based on a network calculation (nodes and connections): the value of each node is updated with a function of its current value and the weight of the neighbors connections. The best trajectory is obtained by the iterative access to the close node. The genetic algorithmic approach works in an environment to operate with or without grid while evolving a set of potential ways under some constraints. We also carried out a dilation of the static obstacles, for more safety (Fig. 12).

In addition of these recorded quantitive results that are intended to the therapist, we wanted to evaluate the feedback from users in terms of qualitative results: - what are the most useful assistive tools - what are the assistive tools they thought to be the most useful These results are not always related, since the last one is very subjective to each user. An example of results is given on Fig. 13, with 12 people aged from 21 to 66, 4 having a disability. Here, the difficulties of subjects 2, 3, 7 and 11 to avoid obstacles is obvious, while a combination of different assistive tools proved to improve their safety or to make it worse. The therapist also has the result coming from the fuzzy controller which propose to activate safety sensors on the wheelchair.

Fig. 13. Risks of collisions every 0.2 s for 12 users depending on the combination of assistive tools they used: sound (S), lights (L), virtual guide (G), map (2D), none (-)

V.

CONCLUSION

Fig. 12. Trajectory calculated with safety fields around the obstacles.

IV. EXAMPLES OF RESULTS At the end of each scenario (i.e. moving from starting zone to ending zone with selected assistive tools), the user is asked if he wants to go on the same conditions or with another scenario. In any case, his navigation information (trajectory, collisions, etc.) are recorded for a further analysis [27].

The fundamental idea behind ISIDORE is to put together in a single tool several functionalities existing separately in many other tools, in a triple aim of rehabilitation of a patient, simulation of his movement in a virtual environment, and help in decision making for the expert therapist that will attribute the user the right to drive a wheelchair. Hence, we designed a tool based on fuzzy logic which can bring solutions to this complex problem. This system also enables the numerical evaluation of the patient progressions/regressions, and also to evalute if additional combination of sensors is necessary to insure a safe drive. This work integrating researchers, therapists and the patient may constitute the basis of a User Centered Methodology for the rapid prototyping of complex embarked systems consisted

in a material part and a software part [10], especially towards wheelchair safe navigation systems [11]. ACKNOWLEDGMENT The authors thank Hpital Rene Sabran (Hyres) and Association des Paralyss de France (Var section) for their collaboration. REFERENCES
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