Nottingham Robotic Mobility Assistant (NoRMA): An Affordable DIY Robotic Wheelchair Platform

Brand, Lewis Christopher; Kucukyilmaz, Ayse

Abstract

A significant portion of the population requires a wheelchair to improve mobility, independence, and dignity but not all users are able to use a traditional manual one. Powered wheelchairs offer a more effortless experience but still present difficulties when navigating through crowds and in confined spaces. Robotic wheelchairs are designed to help users with additional sensors and processing equipment to solve these issues but are incredibly expensive, still in development, or poorly documented. We discuss the development of the Nottingham Robotic Mobility Assistant (NoRMA) and present our effort to develop an easy-to-follow DIY guide for wheelchair users and researchers to build their own smart mobility devices using affordable components. Requiring little electrical knowledge, a standard wheelchair can be converted easily to a robotic wheelchair platform. The NoRMA platform is ideal for further research into control mechanisms and algorithms for smart wheelchairs and the affordability of the platform allows for the creation of multiple research systems for the price of a single commercial one.

Citation

Brand, L. C., & Kucukyilmaz, A. (2022). Nottingham Robotic Mobility Assistant (NoRMA): An Affordable DIY Robotic Wheelchair Platform. In UKRAS22 Conference “Robotics for Unconstrained Environments” Proceedings. https://doi.org/10.31256/Kv8Ps6P

• Conference Name: UKRAS22: The 5th UK Robotics and Autonomous Systems Conference
• Conference Location: Aberystwyth, UK
• Start Date: Aug 26, 2022
• Acceptance Date: Jul 20, 2022
• Online Publication Date: Aug 26, 2022
• Publication Date: Aug 26, 2022
• Deposit Date: Nov 5, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 22, 2022
• Publisher: EPSRC UK-RAS Network
• Series ISSN: 2516-502X
• Book Title: UKRAS22 Conference “Robotics for Unconstrained Environments” Proceedings
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.31256/Kv8Ps6P
• Keywords: Robotic Wheelchair; Raspberry Pi; Affordable; Mobile Robots; Research platform
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/13353050
• Publisher URL: https://www.ukras.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/formidable/21/UK-RAS2022_proceedings_Paper-23.pdf
• Related Public URLs: https://www.ukras.org.uk/publications/ras-proceedings