The Third Generation Eye-Controlled Intelligent Wheelchair Developed by the Student Team of Xi'an University of Electronic Science and Technology

"Gradually Frozen Man" Zhang Weiwei is trying out the intelligent wheelchair.

Just turn your eyes, you can control the wheelchair to drive freely... Under the guidance of Professor Jiao Li Cheng and Dr. Sun Qigong, the graduate team of the Key Laboratory of Intelligent Perception and Image Understanding of the Ministry of Education of Xi'an University of Electronic Science and Technology has developed and completed a wheelchair with wheelchair control, smart home and entertainment functions. Recently, they donated the wheelchair to Zhang Wei, the first "frozen man" who climbed Huashan, free of charge. So far, the result of two graduate students'efforts has been put into use.

Two Graduate Students Make Great Efforts to Build

"Frozen Human Disease" is a common name for a group of motor neuron diseases. Because the motor nerve cells in the brain, brainstem and spinal cord are invaded, the muscles of the patients gradually atrophy and weakness, and even paralysis, the body as gradually frozen, so commonly known as "frozen people". Because the sensory nerve is not invaded, the disease does not affect the patient's intelligence, memory and sensation. Hawking, a well-known master of theoretical physics and master of science, is a "frozen man".

"This intelligent home Wheelchair Based on eyeball control is inspired by the needs of'frozen people'." Sun Long, a member of the team, told reporters that the intelligent life scene has entered millions of households, allowing "frozen people" to travel on their own, life is convenient, so that they enjoy the fun of smart home, which is the starting point of smart wheelchair design. "At that time, some enterprises contacted the school and hoped to make a travel tool that could make the life of the frozen people take care of themselves. After discussing with Professor Jiao Licheng, the instructor, and Dr. Sun Qigong, the team leader, they agreed that the idea of intelligent wheelchair not only fitted the research direction of AI institute, but also enabled the students to apply the knowledge they had learned to the product practice, so that it would be useful for them to learn. "

During the summer vacation of 2017, under the guidance of Professor Jiao Li-cheng and Dr. Sun Qigong, a research and development team was formed, including five freshmen of Grade 2017, including Wang Haoran, Bai Yidong, Wang Zexin, Gaojie and Li Xiufang. After two months of unremitting efforts in summer vacation, they finally made an Intelligent Wheelchair Based on eyeball positioning technology, which enables the "frozen man" to have a certain self-care ability. With this project, the team participated in the Chinese Robot and Artificial Intelligence Competition and won the second place.

After completing the first generation of intelligent wheelchairs, the team found that there were still some big problems in the safety and portability of wheelchairs, which could not guarantee the safe travel of "frozen people" in the absence of escorts. In order to ensure that the team's achievements are truly applied to real life, in the summer of 2018, a new team composed of 2018 master students Bai Yidong, Sun Long, Yang Yuting, Zhou Jinliu, Huang Zhongjian, Shao Yilin and Wang Haoran developed the second generation of intelligent wheelchairs.

"Team members use their spare time to work on wheelchair projects for nearly 10 hours a day, and often rest in the laboratory at noon." Sun Long recalled that team members often spent all night in the lab to solve bugs in their code. "It is our continuous efforts to solve the problems we encounter, so as to enrich the functions of wheelchairs and improve the user experience." Compared with the first generation, the accuracy of eyeball positioning and driving safety of the second generation intelligent wheelchair have been greatly improved, which can really go out of the laboratory and into real life, and meet the needs of travel in the life scene.

The third generation of intelligent wheelchair is becoming more perfect

In order to enrich the life of users and improve the quality of life, the 2018 Master's team, based on the second generation wheelchair, combined with smart home technology, launched the third generation of smart wheelchair, the smart home wheelchair system based on eyeball control. The size of the intelligent wheelchair is similar to that of the ordinary wheelchair, but there are many components such as screen, motion controller, sensor and so on. When using, the system first identifies and traces the eyeball, obtains the information of the focus position and effective staring time of the eyeball line of sight, judges the current intention of the "frozen man" by calculating, and provides corresponding information for wheelchair operation.

In the course of using, the "Gradually Frozen Man" can control the wheelchair to move along the selected path independently. It is very fast and convenient to move forward, backward, turn, even uphill and downhill. At the same time, the user can also freely control the door lock, lighting, curtain, TV, air conditioning and other smart home equipment. In addition, in order to enrich the daily life of "frozen people", the wheelchair also joined the music part, so that "frozen people" can choose songs and listen to songs with their eyes. In terms of safety, wheelchairs can be stopped forcibly when the user's eyes are drifting, which fully guarantees the safety of use.

"The third generation of intelligent wheelchairs participated in the 2018 China Mobile Digital Home Founder Marathon, won the second prize in the country, and received social recognition and media attention." Sun Long introduced it.

The first intelligent wheelchair is donated to the "frozen man" free of charge

"Previously, I only saw a scientist Hawking's wheelchair on TV, but I didn't think I could use such a high-tech product." Not long ago, Zhang Wei, a 29-year-old frozen man, became the first recipient of the Eye-controlled Smart Home Wheelchair. At the age of 16, Zhang Wei was diagnosed with "gradual frozen disease". Although he suffered from severe pain and muscle atrophy, he never gave up. Last July, Zhang Wei stubbornly climbed the North Peak of Huashan Mountain on his birthday.

"In November 2018, our smart wheelchair was developed successfully. At that time, when the teachers and brothers saw Zhang Wei's report, they contacted him and made personalized improvements according to his condition and personal characteristics. Sun Long told reporters that in order to help the strong young man continue to struggle with the disease, the team specially adjusted and customized the intelligent wheelchair. Zhang Wei loved to listen to book reviews and spoke quietly in his life, so he added headrest speakers and microphone amplifiers to his wheelchair. Zhang Wei often speaks everywhere. In order to be portable, wheelchair components can be disassembled, the wheelchair itself can be folded, and a lighter, larger capacity battery has been replaced. In addition, in terms of wheelchair hardware structure, the team also adjusted according to Zhang Wei's physical condition to fully improve the practicability and safety of the wheelchair.

"At present, the team is developing more practical functions, such as infrared obstacle avoidance, laser mapping, to complete semi-automatic wheelchair driving, in order to let the'frozen man'continue to liberate his eyes after liberating his hands." Sun Long said. At the same time, in order to solve the problem of "frozen people" language expression, the team hopes to be able to make an application of eyeball typing and voice conversion in the future, so that "frozen people" can really move and speak out, and really can travel as easily as normal people and facilitate life.

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