Channels ▼  Embedded Systems  Robotic Wheelchair Navigates by
Vocal Commands  Researchers are developing a new kind of
autonomous wheelchair that can learn all about the locations in
a given building, and then take its occupant to a given place in
response to a verbal command.  Just by saying "take me to the
cafeteria" or "go to my room," the wheelchair user would be able
to avoid the need for controlling every twist and turn of the
route and could simply sit back and relax as the chair moves
from one place to another based on a map stored in its memory.
"It's a system that can learn and adapt to the user," says
Nicholas Roy, MIT assistant professor of aeronautics and
astronautics and co-developer of the wheelchair. "People have
different preferences and different ways of referring" to places
and objects, he says, and the aim is to have each wheelchair
personalized for its user and the user's environment.  Unlike
other attempts to program wheelchairs or other mobile devices,
which rely on an intensive proces