Journal of Engineering and Science Research 1 (2): 209-214, 2017

e-ISSN 2289-7127
© RMP Publications, 2017
DOI: 10.26666/rmp.jesr.2017.2.31

A Smart Wheelchair Prototype Based On Hand Gesture Control

Abdul Razak Shaari, Mohd Nordin Mohd Jani, Ahmad Syukri Mohamed Yunus
Department Electrical Engineering, Melaka Polytechnic, Melaka, Malaysia
a.r.shaari@gmail.com, nordinmjani@gmail.com,

Abstract: Wheelchair has been an important assistive device and the demand are ever rising because of the increasing
physically handicapped and old age populations. The recent development in the robotics artificial intelligence extends
vast scope for developing the more advanced and intelligent one to overcome limitations of the existing traditional
wheelchairs. The prototype smart wheelchair were present on this paper using hardware implementation with the help
of simple hand gesture which is comprises of an accelerometer mounted on the hand glove senses the tilt angle of the
user hand movements and transmits control signal to the receiver mounted on wheelchair. This will interpret the
movement accordingly required by user. The wheelchair control unit is developed by integration of ATMEGA328
microcontroller with Arduino UNO. The wheelchair is developed to allow peoples to move safely and put reliability in
accomplishment of some important tasks in daily life.

Key words: Smart Wheelchair; Hand Gestures; Accelerator; Arduino UNO

INTRODUCTION control it with bare hands alone. Contemplating

constrains and the incredible cost of wheelchairs
accessible in the market, this venture depicts the plan
In recent time, overall of peoples in the world, of a practical and a less demanding to-control
approximately 1.85% of them require a wheelchair wheelchair. In this project, we present an approach
especially from the group of elderly and disabled method for controlling to move a mechanized
people. With the world population keep increasing wheelchair just by the gestures of fingers. The venture
each day, there is an additional need for wheelchairs in this beginning time was restricted to control of the
every day. Wheelchair is the best device in assisting wheelchair by the signals created by one hand. It goes
people to enhance their personal mobility in everyday for consolidating the present day methods for
life. So that, elderly and disabled persons can find it wheelchair elements and control and in the meantime
convenient to move and maneuver around using the making it savvy, with the goal that it is reasonable to
help of a wheelchair which can either be pushed by the regular masses.
another individual or propelled either by physical force
manually or electronically. As we know, traditional
wheelchairs have some limitations in context to RESEARCH RATIONALE
flexibility, bulkiness and limited functions [1]. Here,
we are approaching in a smart way to allow the users to Melaka Polytechnic is just a small institution with a
use the movement of hand gestures and synchronize small campus. For diploma students in the Electrical
them with the movement of the wheelchair. This kind Engineering Department, many subjects were taught
of wheelchair can be use with such an ease on all kinds over a period of three years and mostly all of them
of conditions and terrains in a comfortably handling were carried out in classroom for theory class and in
without giving much problems. laboratory for practical works. Between learning
process in class and laboratory, none of them were
Most of us already heard about an alternative for an found sufficient enough in giving a good example of
electric wheelchair that controlled by a joystick. applications based on theory that have been learned
Although this kind of electric powered wheelchair is a because almost all equipment in laboratory were just a
much improvised machine and an easily controlled trainers and panels kit. Hence, this prototype of a smart
device, but it might not help for some severely disabled wheelchair based on hand gesture was introduced to
person. Some common observation and also experience complement classroom and laboratory teaching in
shows that a joystick requires a relatively large force to providing the extra application needed on the basis that

Corresponding Author: Abdul Razak Shaari, Department Electrical Engineering, Melaka Polytechnic, Melaka, Malaysia
a.r.shaari@gmail.com

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self-learning could enhance the understanding of object while transporting it starting with one place then
students. onto the next. The human itself or the wearer of the
gloves just mimics the actions to be done, while the
This project aims to find out whether the A Smart real lifting and setting is left for the actuator to be
Wheelchair Prototype Based On Hand Gesture Control finished. Radio Frequency (RF) innovation is utilized
was able to help students in applying some basic to transit the signals from the glove to the
concept of certain electrical subject related. So that microcontroller. Zimmerman et al. [6] additionally give
eventually it could help to improve their overall an account of the advancement of a comparative hand
understanding and increase their knowledge in learning to machine interface device. It is basically a glove that
process. gives and provides ongoing signal of real-time gesture,
position and data of orientations.

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE Different methods for the progression of wheelchair

innovation have been examined and analyzed herewith.
The advance of technology in the field of Wheelchair It is evident that the control of a wheelchair can be
innovation is at its age. It's not astounding to see that a additionally enhanced by the blend of various
great deal of work has been done in the field of advancements, for example, the consolidation of an
wheelchair innovation. Initially there were the manual instrumented glove, subsequently trading the
wheelchairs' then the electric fueled wheelchairs and requirement for joysticks and making a free controller,
now there are Smart Wheelchairs. The outline of a which is less demanding to-control and convenient in
'Motorized Chair' that vehicles human inside the limits the meantime, for the end user.
of a house is accounted for by Desai and Endrele [2]. A
'Motorized Chair' comprises of a seat with the two RESEARCH DESIGN AND DATA GATHERING
engines and a joystick controller. A microcontroller PROCEDURES
yields the speed and course to the engines. Most
wheelchairs are controlled from their back wheels. The This research comprises of an exhaustive report of
front wheels react and pivot in understanding to the studies, analysis and also the control law used to
back wheels. As the controller is moved, the smaller handle this smart wheelchair. Additionally, included in
scale controller detects the development, do the counts the methodology is a study about the working of the
for power and heading and the engines move as needs Micro Electro-Mechanical System (MEMS) known as
be. An engine control circuit controls the speed and the accelerator sensor. MEMS is the integration of
course of pivot of engines. mechanical components, sensors, actuators, and
electronic hardware on a typical silicon substrate
The principal glove model was produced in through micro fabrication technology. An
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1977. accelerometer is an electromechanical device that
The principal glove to utilize numerous sensors was measures the forces of acceleration or the speeding up
offered by the "Computerized Entry Data Glove‟ strengths. MEMS accelerometer is a solitary chip with
which was created by Gary Grimes in 1983. It utilized little size and minimal effort in cost. In view of their
diverse sensors mounted on a cloth [2]. For motion of little size and weight, accelerometers are easily joined
gesture acknowledgment one of the main items that to the fingertips and back of the hand of the user [4].
came in the market was Nintendo's power glove which
was discharged in 1989. These days many projects are In this system, it comprises of two main parts, a
creating in the premise of hand motion innovation. transmitter part and a receiver part. In transmitter part
Wheelchair in view of hand gesture innovation is a the hand motion is perceived by the sensor, advanced
standout amongst the most mainstream extends these yield of digital signal is transmitted to the controller
days [3]. Additionally the data gloves are growing like and after that transmitted to recipient side of receiver
never before some time recently. by the RF transmitter. Fig. 1 demonstrates the piece
diagram of the transmitter unit. Similar information is
H. Kazerooni et al. [5] give an account of the gotten at receiver side by the RF beneficiary. DC
improvement of a gadget called 'The Magic Glove'. Motors which are interfaced to the controller by the
The 'Magic Glove' is a glove with an extensive variety motor driver controls the bearing of the wheelchair
of utilizations in the field of applied instrumentations. movement. Fig. 2 demonstrates the diagram of the
The glove measures the force applied by the wearer of beneficiary unit.
a material handling robot. Once the force is detected
and measured, it is communicated to the controller.
The capacity of the enchantment glove is to enable the
client to apply an insignificant constrain of force on an
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A. Transmitter on Hand-Glove purpose four channel LM324 comparator circuit is

used. By setting the reference voltage, the digital signal
The accelerator ADXL335 sensor mounted to the hand is received and the signal is sent to the encoder HT12E
glove will initiates the process of sensing the tilt angle to encode data in a series. Then the data is sent to the
of the user hand movements and provides an analog receiver circuit using a RF transmitter.
output and must be converted to digital output. For this

Figure 1. Transmitter Circuit Diagram

Accelerometer (ADXL335) is a low power thin 3-axis B. Receiver on Wheelchair

accelerometer with the signal conditioned voltage
outputs device which senses the tilt and gesture of any In the receiver circuit, the RF receiver is used in
movements including human. The user has to select the receiving signal data and then sent them to the decoder
bandwidth of the accelerometer using the Cx, Cy and HT12D. The decoder will converts the serial data into
Cz capacitors at the Xout, Yout and Zout pins. The parallel and then reading it using Arduino
bandwidth can be selected to suit the application ATMEGA328 microcontroller. Transmission through
desired, with a range of 0.5Hz to 1500Hz for the X and RF is superior to IR (infrared) as a result of many
Y axes, and a range of 0.5 Hz to 550Hz for the Z axis. reasons. Right off the bat, motions through RF can
The Operating voltage of ADXL335 is 3V and it travel through bigger separations of distances making it
operates within 1.8-3.6V and also the sensitivity at reasonable for long range applications. Likewise, while
Xout, Yout, Zout is 3V. The ADXL335 has no external IR for the most part works in observable pathway
filter to consume signals noise and it Operating mode, RF signals can travel notwithstanding when
Temperature range is -40 to 85 ° [6]. there is a deterrent between transmitter and collector.
Next, RF transmission is more solid and dependable
than IR transmission. RF correspondence utilizes a
particular recurrence of frequency not at all like IR
signals which are influenced by other IR radiating
sources.

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Figure 2. Receiver Circuit Diagram

C. Concept apparatus and sent it to the motors via motor drives.

Then the wheels rotated by the direction of the hand
The concept of this project is based on hand gesture gestures to move the wheelchair accordingly. The
technology in order to remote wireless wheelchair. accelerometer basically has three axes. Thus, the
Firstly, the accelerometer detected hand gestures then wheelchair can move in three directions of axis, X, Y
the analog signal transmitted to microcontroller. After and Z. But the most important of this project is to
processing the signal, the microcontroller will send the control the wireless wheelchair using hand gestures.
data to wireless module and transmitted the signal to The flowchart of this wheelchair control system as
receiver. The microcontroller will recognize the shown in Figure 3.
signals from wireless module in the getting reception

Figure 3. Flowchart of Wheelchair Control System

DATA ANALYSIS correct right side then the wheelchair moves right way
or if the tilt is to another side then the wheelchair
The point of this venture result is the sensor is moves left way. Wheelchair developments can be
proficient to distinguish the tilt and makes utilization of controlled in Forward, Reverse, Left and Right heading
the accelerometer to alter the course of the wheelchair as appeared in the Table 1.
relying upon tilt. In the event that the tilt is to the

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Hand Gesture Input From Arduino Direction

D1 D2 D3 D4
Stable 00 0 0 0 0 No Movement
Bend To Right 450 0 0 0 1 Right Movement
Bend To Left 0 0 1 0 Left Movement
450
Bend To 1 0 0 0 Reverse
Backward 450 Movement
Bend To Forward 0 1 0 0 Forward
450 Movement

Table 1. Algorithm Setting For Wheelchair Direction

Table 1 shown the control algorithm for the can be controlled easily by changing the position of the
wheelchair and in order to explore that , a simple user’s hand. The wheelchair stops when the hand of
system for wheelchair control based on the recognition user returns to the neutral position.
of the gestures, performed by the arm of the user has
been designed. The system memorizes the same arm RESEARCH FINDINGS
posture for further referencing to it as the stable gesture
or “neutral position” after the recognition of the start During the test, the wheelchair would move right or
gesture. The wheelchair is driven by the electric motors left when the hand were bent around 300 to 450. The
during the gesture of control mode. The motors do not maximum speed of the wheelchair is around 10 m/s.
work and the wheelchair does not move when the arm This prototype will having difficulty to move forward
is in a neutral position. when facing with obstacle and collision of the route.
Moreover the braking system is only depends on the
The wheelchair movement direction can be set by hand to move forward and backward. When tests are
moving user hand away from the neutral position. To done on a flat road, there are not many problems faced
rotates the wheelchair to the right, the hand of the user by the wheelchair. But there is a problem when the test
need to move to the right. To rotate the wheelchair to is done on a downhill road where the brake system
the left, the hand of the user need to move to the left. needs to be streamlined again. Likewise the problem
Bend the hand to backward causes reverse wheelchair occurred on the downhill road this problem will be
movement, while the bending of the arm to forward investigated and corrected in further study.
causes a forward movement. The wheelchair direction

The prototype model on this smart wheelchair is shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4. Prototype Model of Smart Wheelchair

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REFLECTION AND CONCLUSION

[3] Prashan Premaratna, Human Computer Interaction
A design and development to facilitate disable peoples Using Hand Gestures, Springer Singapore, 2014
was an extremely encouraging thing. The use of Available: http://www.springer.com/978-981-4585-68-
intelligence and equipment skills in engineering can 2 [Accessed: Nov 15, 2014].
help people towards a good quality of life. In this
paper, a smart wheelchair prototype based on hand [4] Prof. Vishal V. Pande, Nikita S.Ubale, Darshana P.
gesture control was proposed and has been developed Masurkar, Nikita R. Ingole, Pragati P. Mane F. Yaman,
in order to assist and give alternative better control to Q. Lin, and Govind P. Agrawal, ”Hand Gesture Based
people with severe disabilities. In addition to hand Wheelchair Movement Control for Disabled Person
gesture movements, to improve the project various Using MEMS”. Int. Journal of Engineering Research
methods can also be used such as foot, head, even body and Applications ISSN: 2248-9622, Vol. 4, Issue
or eye movement. Further research will overcome the 4(Version4), April2014, pp.152-158.Available:
problems of the system braking for this wheelchair. www.ijera.com[Accessed, Nov.10, 2014]

[5] H. Kazerooni, D. Fairbanks, A. Chen, G. Shin

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