Contact: Kurt Pfitzer
kap4@lehigh.edu
610-758-3017
Lehigh University

Robotics, laser and wireless technologies make driving safer for wheelchair users
New modular system places handicapped operators in standard auto seats and stows their wheelchairs while they drive
Engineers at Lehigh and Carnegie Mellon universities, working with a Philadelphia-based start-up, have integrated robotics, laser and wireless technologies into a new system that promises to make it safer and cheaper for wheelchair users to drive a car.

The Automatic Transport and Retrieval System (ATRS), scheduled to go on sale next spring, allows wheelchair users to get in and out of their vehicles, stow and retrieve their chairs, and drive while sitting in standard automobile seats.

The new system is the product of a collaboration between the two universities; Freedom Sciences LLC, a robotics company located at the Philadelphia Navy Yard; and Freedom Lift Corp. of Green Lane, Pa. Freedom Sciences has signed a licensing agreement on the ATRS with Lehigh.

John Spletzer, assistant professor of computer science and engineering, says the ATRS has achieved a breakthrough by enabling wheelchair users to drive while sitting in standard automobile seats that meet federal safety regulations.

Current solutions for wheelchair users who desire independent mobility require operators to sit in their chairs while driving. Because they are often poorly secured and not crash-test-approved, wheelchairs provide far less protection than standard seats. According to the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 35 percent of all automobile fatalities related to wheelchairs result from inadequately secured chairs.

The ATRS is also modular, says Spletzer, and can be installed without making permanent – and expensive – changes to the vehicle. Drivers trading in their cars merely remove the ATRS from the old vehicle and install it in the new one.

By contrast, wheelchairs users who now wish to drive must convert their vehicles, which requires lowering or replacing the floor of their van or minivan; rerouting fuel lines, heating and air-conditioning systems; and relocating the fuel tank.

"These changes severely restrict the resale value of the vehicle," says Spletzer. "With the ATRS, however, you can buy or lease a vehicle, usually a van, and install the ATRS without making permanent changes to the vehicle. If you decide to buy another vehicle, you simply remove the ATRS, sell or return your van, and install the ATRS in your new vehicle.

"This gives you a lot more freedom and personal choice."

The ATRS will cost $15,000 to $20,000, versus the $30,000 and up that wheelchair users now pay to convert vehicles. The figures do not include the cost of the wheelchair or vehicle.

Spletzer and Tom Panzarella, CEO of Cook Technologies, parent company of Freedom Lift Corp., say the ATRS should be a boon to the six million people who, according to the U.S. Bureau of Transportation, have difficulty finding transportation.

"This is a major contributor to the unemployment rate of the disabled population nationally, which is estimated at over 65 percent by the U.S. Census Bureau," Spletzer and Panzarella wrote in a report.

How it works

The ATRS contains three key components: an articulated power seat that extends outside the vehicle to facilitate wheelchair-to-seat transfers, a power lift platform, and a "smart" wheelchair system.

The ATRS works in the following manner:

You move your powered wheelchair next to the driver's side of your vehicle. Using a remote-control device similar to a key fob, you open the vehicle door and direct the vehicle to lower the driver's seat alongside your wheelchair. You then slide over from your wheelchair into the driver's seat. Once in the driver's seat, you deploy the power lift platform from the rear of the vehicle through the touch of a button.

Using a joystick for remote control, you then guide your empty wheelchair to the rear of the van. There, the chair is switched to autonomous mode, and drives itself onto the lift platform using position feedback from an integrated laser system at a rate of 10 times per second. The lift platform then raises and stows the chair in the back of the van.

At this point, you press another button to raise the driver's seat, in which you are sitting, up into the van. The driver's seat is then restored to its normal driving position and secured.

When you arrive at your destination, you reverse the entire procedure.

Spletzer, who directs Lehigh's Vision, Autonomous Devices, and Experimental Robotics (VADER) Laboratory, says the ATRS represents a cutting-edge application of mobile robotics.

"There have been many advances in mobile robotics in recent years," says Spletzer, who has worked two years with Freedom Sciences on the ATRS. "But most of these outdoor applications are in mining and other environments where people are excluded by design. The ATRS, on the other hand, is designed to assist humans and to be used with their direction. We believe it has the potential to become one of the most widespread outdoor applications of commercial robotics to date."

The ATRS contains several other features that add value while enhancing reliability and safety, says Spletzer.


The laser system on the rear lift platform takes corrective action if an obstruction or slick spot causes the wheelchair to veer off course as it moves toward the platform.

"The laser system is constantly monitoring itself," says Spletzer. "If it is not 99.9 percent sure that the docking will be successful, it will back the chair up and perform corrective action."


A camera above the platform lift, working in tandem with a human-robot user-interface computer on the ATRS dashboard, lets the driver know when to use the joystick to close the rear hatch of the ATRS-equipped vehicle.


Once the chair has been stowed, two hooks on the rear platform grip a plow bar on the chair and lock it in place.

"In the event of a vehicle accident or collision, the locking mechanism prevents the chair from becoming a dangerous projectile inside the vehicle," says Spletzer.


To help drivers move from wheelchair to car seat, the ATRS Freedom Seat is fully articulated. Its adjustable height allows drivers to always move down when they slide from wheelchair to car seat or vice versa.


The system's modularity enables the ATRS to accommodate almost all sizes and models of wheelchairs and to offer easy upgrades for wheelchair users who have progressive diseases.

Next year, says Spletzer, Freedom Sciences is planning to develop an advanced ATRS for wheelchair users who have difficulty sliding themselves from the chair to the car seat. The new system will be fully automated, using a small "smart" camera instead of a joystick.

The modifications required to make a wheelchair ATRS-compatible are invisible, says Spletzer, as the computing, gyroscope and encoders that are added to the chair are transparent to the user. "In normal day to day use," he says, "it is no different from a standard power chair."

The ATRS is going to market at an opportune time, say Spletzer and Panzarella.

The expected increase in the population of Americans aged 65 and over will no doubt cause a corresponding rise in the number of wheelchair users, they say.

"We've already received a number of e-mails from people who say the ATRS will really help them in their daily lives," says Spletzer.

Spletzer developed the algorithms, or sets of rules, for autonomous navigation of the ATRS. These were first validated in simulation using MATLAB, a technical computing language, before being ported to the actual hardware.


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http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releas...-rla121206.php

Good find Bobby. If the hype matches reality I may be driving my last rampvan (great devices in themselves).

Devices help give voice to students who are autistic
By Luis Zaragoza
Mercury News

Joanna Ho-Young Lee / Mercury News
Autistic student Trevor Fu, 13, uses a ChatPC device to type out words at the PACE School in Sunnyvale.


It looks like an ordinary computer keyboard with a narrow display screen running across the top.

Boxy. Plain. Nothing extraordinary.

But this drab device translates keystrokes into spoken words -- a concept familiar to anyone who has heard the clipped yet engaging computer-generated speech of eminent scientist Stephen Hawking. The technology offers hope of faster and easier communication for some people with autism, a neurological disorder characterized by difficulty in verbal communication.

So add potentially life-altering to that plain keyboard's description.

That's why the Pacific Autism Center for Education in Sunnyvale, a school for young people with autism and other developmental disorders, would like to have two LinkPLUS keyboards ($2,500 each). It's part of a family of what are called augmentative and alternative communication devices.

What this means for Jan Netto is that her son Joey, who attends PACE, now has a voice.

``He's come into his own since he's had access to those devices -- he's kind of clever with that kind of thing,'' she says.

To see autistic students break through the speech problems and sensory overload that typify autism and finally interact with the people around them ``is monumental,'' says Kurt Ohlfs, PACE's executive director, who has a special connection to the technology.

On any given day, classrooms at PACE resonate with the sounds of learning. The soothing voices of therapists and aides combine with an ever-changing array of sounds produced by children of all ages who sometimes lash out in frustration. Behavior issues are a chief reason public schools refer autistic students to specialized schools such as PACE.

PACE was established by parents and instructors who realized public schools are not equipped to give autistic children the personal attention they require. In the specialized environment that emphasizes order and routine, the breakthroughs big and small keep PACE's instructors motivated. Like expert locksmiths, they prod and cajole students in hopes of landing the right combination of therapies to put them on the road to self-sufficiency.

It's a huge task.

An estimated 1.5 million Americans have some form of autism. It is such a vastly complex condition that no single therapy or device can be applied across the board.

Still, technology is evolving so swiftly that PACE instructors are eager to employ devices that help students express their curiosity and reduce the frustration that comes from their inability to easily relay wants and needs.

LinkPLUS was developed for people who have lost the ability to speak -- but can still type or use a stylus -- because of a brain injury, stroke, disability or degenerative disorders such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS. It's also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, and it's what caused Hawking's paralysis and loss of speech.

Sixty percent of the 53 students at PACE don't speak. Therapy for some involves classroom study. Others use devices with touch-screen technology that foster interaction between students and others -- a key aspect of learning at the school.

In one exercise, a therapist guides Joey Netto in using a touch-screen device that displays various icons representing pre-set questions and objects. Playing the role of library clerk, Joey helps other students check out books from the collection. He uses a stylus to select questions such as, ``What is your name?'' The device translates the set message into spoken words. The student selects another icon to ask a student his classroom number. Another icon results in a simple ``Bye'' when the transaction is over.

``Good job!'' therapist Christy Gaber says.

The exercise shows just how comfortable some students can be with technology. And that's what makes something like the LinkPLUS device so exciting. There's no telling just how much an autistic student has learned until a way is found for him to express himself.

Ohlfs says he's observed some students who are somewhat bored with tapping icons on a screen but, given access to a keyboard device, suddenly blossom, speaking electronically non-stop.

It's a particularly satisfying result for him, since he began his professional life as an engineer building the same type of touch pad devices that he is now hoping to use more extensively to help students at PACE and elsewhere.

So how did an engineer come to run a school? Through a series of events, he became a board member for PACE, and then interim director. He was tentative at first, but found himself absorbed by the daily challenges. His tenure kept being extended. Lately he has been involved in sharing advances in autism education with other agencies and public schools. Much of that work involves changing attitudes about what people with autism can achieve.

Given his background, he's busy developing new ways to employ technology in teaching. He's currently involved in using video to track student development. And because he knows it inside and out, he's eager to see how touch-screen technology can be adapted to propel PACE's work.

``If I can leverage technology I helped develop -- I'd be thrilled,'' Ohlfs says, displaying the enthusiasm and determination that have helped him thrive in his new career. ``Nothing is more fulfilling than to be at both ends of this.''

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercu...s/16228338.htm