Wireless Gesture Control Wheelchair
Shanelle Fernandes1, Rushia Fernandes2, Jessica Kakkanad3

1Shanelle Fernandes, Information Technology St. Francis Institute of Technology Borivali, Mumbai, India.
2Rushia Fernandes, Information Technology, St. Francis Institute of Technology Borivali, Mumbai, India.
3Jessica Kakkanad, Information Technology, St. Francis Institute of Technology Borivali, Mumbai, India.

Manuscript received on July 05, 2020. | Revised Manuscript received on July 09, 2020. | Manuscript published on July 30, 2020. | PP: 771-775 | Volume-9 Issue-2, July 2020. | Retrieval Number: A3059059120/2020©BEIESP | DOI: 10.35940/ijrte.A3059.079220
Open Access | Ethics and Policies | Cite | Mendeley
© The Authors. Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering and Sciences Publication (BEIESP). This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

Abstract: Wheelchairs have been used by patients who suffer from various physical disabilities to help them with locomotion and cater their day to day needs with ease. But there are some cases where the movement of a wheelchair is dependent on another individual as is the case with patients who lack the required arm strength and movement to properly push the wheels forward such as quadriplegics, paraplegics, stroke patients, elders etc. Joystick oriented wheelchairs, thought to be a solution to those kinds of patients, can pose different problems as it requires basic shoulder movement. It is not always possible for the aforementioned types of patients. In addition, our solution doesn’t have the positional constraints that a joystick wheelchair might have as it is wireless and can be worn on either hand which allows the patient to sit in their preferred position for minimum discomfort. This project is an attempt to help the disabled move around independently. Thus, in this research work, we present a prototype of a wireless gesture-based wheelchair which can be controlled via hand gestures. The framework consists of a transmitter and a receiver that communicate with each other wirelessly. For wireless transmission, 433Mhz RF Transmitter and Receiver Unit has been used as it transmits data through an antenna at the speed of 1Kbps – 10Kbps and the range can be adjusted as required. The transmitter unit consists of an Arduino LilyPad microcontroller and an accelerometer that has been attached to a hand glove. The accelerometer sensor has been used to register the position of the hand while creating a gesture. This glove is supposed to be worn by the patient allowing them to move their hand conveniently, sending signals to the receiver unit connected to the wheelchair leading to the movement of the wheels in the desired direction. The receiver unit consist of motor drivers that convert the voltage as needed by the wheels. This paper presents an alternative to the commercial wheelchairs as it is cost effective, easy to control and efficient. The working and assembly of the system has been explained in the paper.
Keywords: Accelerometer, Gesture Recognition, Handicapped Assistance, Radio-Frequency Transceiver, Wheelchair.