Building a Self-Driving, Target-Following, Obstacle-Avoiding Wheelchair

Electric wheelchairs, as you might suspect, are electrically powered and controlled. What you might not realize, however, is that they use a CAN bus as an interface, the same sort of device that allows you to plug in a computer to a modern car. Although this could present some security issues, it also means that these devices can be enhanced to work in new ways.

In this project, Stephen Chavez hooked up a Raspberry Pi to his wheelchair, enabling it to control the chair through this bus. Though applications could vary greatly, in this case, an iPhone is used to track an AprilTag, causing the chair to follow it via the Pi.

It would seem that this prototype setup could be expanded greatly, perhaps forming the basis for a self-driving or auto-following wheelchair in the future. More info can be found in the video’s description.

Another take on this kind of control, as seen in this article could also mean externally driving a chair around like a video game. This can be a good thing, but considering the ease with which this kind of hack can be implemented, the potential for unwanted commands is present as well.