ELECTRONIC CONTROL OF A WHEELCHAIR GUIDED BY VOICE COMMANDS

This paper describes the control of an electric wheel chair with voice commands. This chair has been developed and built at the U.A.H. Elect ronic Department and financed by the ONCE Foundation (Spain). The firs t prototype consists of voice recognition, motor control, user interfa ce and central processor modules. The electronic system allows the cha ir user a safe, easy ride, and guarantees the concordance between user commands and actual trajectories. Furthermore, the system has been de signed to allow the addition of future features, like obstacle and sta ir detection and the tele-commanding of electrical household appliance s from the chair.