Summary of AUTONOMOUS WHEELCHAIR LETS JETSON DO THE DRIVING
Kabilan KB built a low-cost self-driving electric wheelchair using off-the-shelf parts: an Intel RealSense Depth Camera and LiDAR for sensing, a Jetson Nano running OpenCV for obstacle detection and navigation, and an Arduino with an L298N motor driver to control the wheelchair motors. He aimed to make assistive mobility tech affordable and envisions future software enabling destination-based autonomous driving within homes.
Parts used in the Self-Driving Electric Wheelchair:
- Intel RealSense Depth Camera
- LiDAR module
- NVIDIA Jetson Nano Developer Kit
- Arduino (microcontroller)
- L298N motor driver board
- Electric wheelchair (affordable, off-the-shelf model)
Compared to their manual counterparts, electric wheelchairs are far less demanding to operate, as the user doesn’t need to have upper body strength normally required to turn the wheels. But even a motorized wheelchair needs some kind of input from the user to control it, which still may pose a considerable challenge depending on the individual’s specific abilities.
Hoping to improve on the situation, [Kabilan KB] has developed a self-driving electric wheelchair that can navigate around obstacles by feeding the output of an Intel RealSense Depth Camera and LiDAR module into a Jetson Nano Developer Kit running OpenCV. To control the actual motors, the Jetson is connected to an Arduino which in turn is wired into a common L298N motor driver board.
As [Kabilan] explains on the NVIDIA Blog, he specifically chose off-the-shelf components and the most affordable electric wheelchair he could find to bring the total cost of the project as low as possible. An undergraduate from the Karunya Institute of Technology and Sciences in Coimbatore, India, he notes that this sort of assistive technology is usually only available to more affluent patients. With his cost-saving measures, he hopes to address that imbalance.
While automatic obstacle avoidance would already be a big help for many users, [Kabilan] imagines improved software taking things a step further. For example, a user could simply press a button to indicate which room of the house they want to move to, and the chair could drive itself there automatically. With increasingly powerful single-board computers and the state of open source self-driving technology steadily improving, it’s not hard to imagine a future where this kind of technology is commonplace.
Source: AUTONOMOUS WHEELCHAIR LETS JETSON DO THE DRIVING
- What sensors does the self-driving wheelchair use?
The project uses an Intel RealSense Depth Camera and a LiDAR module for sensing. - What computer runs the navigation software?
The NVIDIA Jetson Nano Developer Kit runs OpenCV for navigation and obstacle detection. - How are the wheelchair motors controlled?
An Arduino is connected to an L298N motor driver board to control the motors. - Did the creator use custom hardware or off-the-shelf components?
He specifically chose off-the-shelf components to keep costs low. - What software/library is mentioned for image processing?
OpenCV is used for processing sensor output and navigation. - What was the main goal of the project?
To create a low-cost assistive self-driving wheelchair that is more accessible to less affluent patients. - Can the wheelchair avoid obstacles automatically?
Yes; the system performs automatic obstacle avoidance using the camera and LiDAR inputs. - Does the project allow destination-based autonomous driving currently?
The article suggests future software could enable destination-based driving, but this is an envisioned improvement rather than a described current feature.
