Developement of Road Condition Categorizing System for Manual Wheelchair Using Mahalanobis Distance

Abstract

Wheelchairs are widely used for the people with difficulty in walking. In accordance with the enforcement of the law regarding the promotion of their smooth transfer, barrier-free systems have been provided in many public facilities. However, many small gaps, narrow lanes which interrupt wheelchair users still remain. They also interrupt electric wheelchairs and human support robots with wheels. This paper describes our Mahalanobis-distance based road condition categorizing system for such mobilities. This system enables us to detect the barriers and informs us where the barriers are. This paper describes the method and confirms its validity by conducting experiments.