The Motion Assistant: engineering a Bluetooth-enabled power wheelchair

Abstract

Open Hardware and Free Software have both active communities. Open source software projects have helped many companies launch their products, but that has not happened in the same proportion for hardware. Assistive technology industry is known to be extremely restricted to proprietary solutions, which may lead to slower development cycles as there is a smaller community of device developers. This paper details how an Arduino-based open hardware project can be improved to become an industrial product with the same quality level of existing available devices. The resulting product is scheduled to be released to the public this year and will expand the use of power wheelchairs in Brazil so that people with disabilities have access to such electronic equipment.