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A Humanoid Robot Companion for Wheelchair Users

  • Conference paper
Social Robotics (ICSR 2013)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 8239))

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Abstract

In this paper we integrate a humanoid robot with a powered wheelchair with the aim of lowering the cognitive requirements needed for powered mobility. We propose two roles for this companion: pointing out obstacles and giving directions. We show that children enjoyed driving with the humanoid companion by their side during a field-trial in an uncontrolled environment. Moreover, we present the results of a driving experiment for adults where the companion acted as a driving aid and conclude that participants preferred the humanoid companion to a simulated companion. Our results suggest that people will welcome a humanoid companion for their wheelchairs.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Personal Robotics Lab, Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Imperial College London, UK

    Miguel Sarabia & Yiannis Demiris

Authors
  1. Miguel Sarabia
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  2. Yiannis Demiris
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Bristol Robotics Laboratory, University of the West of England, BS348QZ, Bristol, UK

    Guido Herrmann

  2. Bristol Robotics Laboratory, University of the West of England, BS161QD, UK

    Martin J. Pearson

  3. Bristol Robotics Laboratory, University of the West of England, BS161QY, Bristol, UK

    Alexander Lenz , Paul Bremner , Adam Spiers  & Ute Leonards , ,  & 

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© 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Sarabia, M., Demiris, Y. (2013). A Humanoid Robot Companion for Wheelchair Users. In: Herrmann, G., Pearson, M.J., Lenz, A., Bremner, P., Spiers, A., Leonards, U. (eds) Social Robotics. ICSR 2013. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 8239. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02675-6_43

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02675-6_43

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-02674-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-02675-6

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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