IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - December 2017 - 36

stability on the stairs and by reclining the seat so that the user
is comfortably level with the ground. The wheelchair won the
bronze medal at the Cybathlon competition, demonstrating its
capabilities and effectiveness.
However, there are limitations to our approach that will
need to be addressed in future development of the wheelchair. Currently, the wheelchair is fully controlled by the user
without any autonomy. Therefore, we plan to implement
algorithms for autonomous stair climbing and obstacle
avoidance. Also, in the current state of our wheelchair
design, the user still needs to possess sufficient cognitive,
neuromuscular, sensory, and perceptual capabilities to safely
control the wheelchair in a complex environment with a joystick. Users who are not capable of doing this require an
assistant to help them. In this regard, future work will be
focused in two directions: 1) the development of more natural and intuitive interfaces and 2) shared/collaborative control between the user, smart wheelchair control algorithms,
and an accompanying person.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the Slovenian Research Agency
and numerous sponsors. We thank all the members of the student team who participated in the development of the wheelchair for their contributions to various aspects of the work.
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Janez Podobnik, University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Electrical
Engineering, Slovenia. E-mail: janezp@robo.fe.uni-lj.si.
Jure Rejc, University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Slovenia. E-mail: jure.rejc@robo.fe.uni-lj.si.
Sebastjan Šlajpah, University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Slovenia. E-mail: sebastjan.slajpah@robo
.fe.uni-lj.si.
Marko Munih, University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Electrical
Engineering, Slovenia. E-mail: marko@robo.fe.uni-lj.si.
Matjaž Mihelj, University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Electrical
Engineering, Slovenia. E-mail: matjaz.mihelj@robo.fe.uni-lj.si.
http://fe.uni-lj.si
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - December 2017
