Intelligent voice activated location-based (indoor) motorised platform (IVALIMP)

Abstract

Transportation of people and objects in enclosed areas demands a lot of time and resources. Environments such as warehouses, factories and hospitals all su er from this kind of problem. People who need to be taken somewhere are often frustrated by having to wait for someone to take them there, as are people waiting to receive something. Autonomous outdoor transportation deals with a complex and unpredictable environment but this is not the case for enclosed, known environments, the advantages of which can potentially be exploited. These environments o er better management of resources, more predictability and better technology for locating devices. A generic framework for this indoor transportation problem was designed, and a system based on this framework was implemented, the main focus of which was the transportation of people requiring mobility assistance in retirement homes or similar institutions. The core functions of this system were therefore a voice interface, for ease of use by wheelchair users; an indoor positioning system, including routing and navigation; and a communication and control module for the transportation device in this case, a motorized wheelchair. Given the constraints of the project, the system was simulated rather than physically implemented in a care home. A realistic map of one of the homes involved in the study was used for visualisation, and a simulator was developed for the systems evaluation. The framework was tested with a number of scenarios pertaining to a medium sized environment with a higher than average carer to resident ratio, and the automated transport solution delivered overall average travel and waiting times which were signi cantly lower than the current care-giver powered transportation solution to be found in retirement homes today.