skip to main content
10.1145/3517428.3550380acmconferencesArticle/Chapter ViewAbstractPublication PagesassetsConference Proceedingsconference-collections
poster

”I Should Feel Like I’m In Control”: Understanding Expectations, Concerns, and Motivations for the Use of Autonomous Navigation on Wheelchairs

Published: 22 October 2022 Publication History

Abstract

Autonomous navigation on wheelchairs promises to be a significant frontier in the evolution of the power wheelchair as an assistive enabling device, and is increasingly explored among researchers for its potential to unlock more accessible navigation for wheelchair users. While developments on path-planning methods for wheelchairs is ongoing, there is a relative paucity of research on autonomous wheelchair navigation experiences which accommodate potential users’ needs. In this work, we present preliminary design considerations for the user experience for autonomous wheelchair navigation derived from a semi-structured interview with ten (10) current wheelchair users about their willingness to use and applicability of an autonomous navigation function. From this, nine (9) expressed a willingness to use autonomous navigation in the near future in a range of contexts, while expressing attitudes like expectations, concerns, and motivations for intent to use. To better understand the impetus for such attitudes, we conducted thematic analysis to reveal three high-order factors and associated qualities which together serve as a framework to help understand participants’ intent. Finally, we highlight three critical areas of focus to highlight opportunities and challenges for developers of a user-centered autonomous navigation experience for wheelchairs.

References

[1]
André R. Baltazar, Marcelo R. Petry, Manuel F. Silva, and António Paulo Moreira. 2021. Autonomous wheelchair for patient’s transportation on healthcare institutions. SN Applied Sciences 3, 3 (Feb. 2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42452-021-04304-1
[2]
Patrick Carrington, Amy Hurst, and Shaun K. Kane. 2014. Wearables and Chairables: Inclusive Design of Mobile Input and Output Techniques for Power Wheelchair Users. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) (CHI ’14). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 3103–3112. https://doi.org/10.1145/2556288.2557237
[3]
Panasonic Holdings Corporation. 2020. Panasonic begins trial of Mobility Service using autonomous tracking robots at Takanawa Gateway station. Panasonic Newsroom Global(2020). https://news.panasonic.com/global/topics/2020/79848.html
[4]
Samuel Echefu. 2016. Towards Natural Human Control and Navigation of Autonomous Wheelchairs.
[5]
Chinemelu Ezeh, Pete Trautman, Catherine Holloway, and Tom Carlson. 2017. Comparing Shared Control Approaches for Alternative Interfaces: A Wheelchair Simulator Experiment. In 2017 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics (SMC) (Banff, AB, Canada). IEEE Press, 93–98. https://doi.org/10.1109/SMC.2017.8122584
[6]
Jennifer Fereday and Eimear Muir-Cochrane. 2006. Demonstrating rigor using thematic analysis: A hybrid approach of inductive and deductive coding and theme development. International journal of qualitative methods 5, 1 (2006), 80–92.
[7]
Harkishan Grewal, Aaron Matthews, Richard Tea, and Kiran George. 2017. LIDAR-Based Autonomous Wheelchair. In 2017 IEEE Sensors Applications Symposium (SAS)(Glassboro, NJ, USA). IEEE Press, 1–6. https://doi.org/10.1109/SAS.2017.7894082
[8]
WHILL Inc.2019. WHILL Expands Airport Trials of Self-Driving Personal Mobility Devices to North America. WHILL News (2019). https://whill.inc/us/whill-expands-airport-trials-of-self-driving-personal-mobility-devices-to-north-america/
[9]
Beomjoon Kim and Joelle Pineau. 2016. Socially adaptive path planning in human environments using inverse reinforcement learning. International Journal of Social Robotics 8, 1 (2016), 51–66.
[10]
Lucia Liu, Daniel Dugas, Gianluca Cesari, Roland Siegwart, and Renaud Dubé. 2020. Robot navigation in crowded environments using deep reinforcement learning. In 2020 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS). IEEE, 5671–5677.
[11]
Hitachi Ltd.2017. Autonomous mobility: Focus on the problems of people that can be solved by autonomous mobility. Hitachi Research (2017). https://www.hitachi.com/rd/research/design/vision_design/future/autonomous_mobility/chair/index.html
[12]
Corey Montella, Timothy Perkins, John R. Spletzer, and Michael Sands. 2012. To the Bookstore! Autonomous Wheelchair Navigation in an Urban Environment. In FSR.
[13]
Yoichi Morales, Atsushi Watanabe, Florent Ferreri, Jani Even, Tetsushi Ikeda, Kazuhiro Shinozawa, Takahiro Miyashita, and Norihiro Hagita. 2015. Including human factors for planning comfortable paths. In 2015 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA). IEEE. https://doi.org/10.1109/icra.2015.7140063
[14]
Massachusetts Institute of Technology News. 2017. Featured video: A self-driving wheelchair. MIT News (2017). https://www.csail.mit.edu/node/5962
[15]
Hye-Yeon Ryu, Je-Seong Kwon, Jeong-Hak Lim, A-Hyeon Kim, Su-Jin Baek, and Jong-Wook Kim. 2022. Development of an Autonomous Driving Smart Wheelchair for the Physically Weak. Applied Sciences 12, 1 (2022). https://doi.org/10.3390/app12010377
[16]
Richard C Simpson. 2005. Smart wheelchairs: A literature review. Journal of rehabilitation research and development 42, 4(2005), 423.
[17]
Bingqing Zhang, Giulia Barbareschi, Roxana Ramirez Herrera, Tom Carlson, and Catherine Holloway. 2022. Understanding Interactions for Smart Wheelchair Navigation in Crowds. In Proceedings of the 2022 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (New Orleans, LA, USA) (CHI ’22). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 194, 16 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3491102.3502085

Cited By

View all
  • (2024)Shared eHMI: Bridging Human–Machine Understanding in Autonomous Wheelchair NavigationApplied Sciences10.3390/app1401046314:1(463)Online publication date: 4-Jan-2024
  • (2024)Exploring Control Authority Preferences in Robotic Arm Assistance for Power Wheelchair UsersActuators10.3390/act1303010413:3(104)Online publication date: 7-Mar-2024
  • (2024)SeaHare: An omidirectional electric wheelchair integrating independent, remote and shared control modalitiesProceedings of the 26th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility10.1145/3663548.3675657(1-16)Online publication date: 27-Oct-2024
  • Show More Cited By

Index Terms

  1. ”I Should Feel Like I’m In Control”: Understanding Expectations, Concerns, and Motivations for the Use of Autonomous Navigation on Wheelchairs

    Recommendations

    Comments

    Information & Contributors

    Information

    Published In

    cover image ACM Conferences
    ASSETS '22: Proceedings of the 24th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility
    October 2022
    902 pages
    ISBN:9781450392587
    DOI:10.1145/3517428
    Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for third-party components of this work must be honored. For all other uses, contact the Owner/Author.

    Sponsors

    Publisher

    Association for Computing Machinery

    New York, NY, United States

    Publication History

    Published: 22 October 2022

    Check for updates

    Author Tags

    1. assistive technology
    2. interaction design
    3. social navigation
    4. wheelchairs

    Qualifiers

    • Poster
    • Research
    • Refereed limited

    Conference

    ASSETS '22
    Sponsor:

    Acceptance Rates

    ASSETS '22 Paper Acceptance Rate 35 of 132 submissions, 27%;
    Overall Acceptance Rate 436 of 1,556 submissions, 28%

    Upcoming Conference

    ASSETS '25

    Contributors

    Other Metrics

    Bibliometrics & Citations

    Bibliometrics

    Article Metrics

    • Downloads (Last 12 months)52
    • Downloads (Last 6 weeks)2
    Reflects downloads up to 15 Feb 2025

    Other Metrics

    Citations

    Cited By

    View all
    • (2024)Shared eHMI: Bridging Human–Machine Understanding in Autonomous Wheelchair NavigationApplied Sciences10.3390/app1401046314:1(463)Online publication date: 4-Jan-2024
    • (2024)Exploring Control Authority Preferences in Robotic Arm Assistance for Power Wheelchair UsersActuators10.3390/act1303010413:3(104)Online publication date: 7-Mar-2024
    • (2024)SeaHare: An omidirectional electric wheelchair integrating independent, remote and shared control modalitiesProceedings of the 26th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility10.1145/3663548.3675657(1-16)Online publication date: 27-Oct-2024
    • (2024)WheelPoser: Sparse-IMU Based Body Pose Estimation for Wheelchair UsersProceedings of the 26th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility10.1145/3663548.3675638(1-17)Online publication date: 27-Oct-2024
    • (2024)Navigating Daily Life: Insights from Powered Wheelchair Users on Assistive Technologies and Caregiver SupportExtended Abstracts of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613905.3650863(1-7)Online publication date: 11-May-2024

    View Options

    Login options

    View options

    PDF

    View or Download as a PDF file.

    PDF

    eReader

    View online with eReader.

    eReader

    HTML Format

    View this article in HTML Format.

    HTML Format

    Figures

    Tables

    Media

    Share

    Share

    Share this Publication link

    Share on social media