Design of Haptic Interfaces to Assess the Driving Capabilities of People With Disabilities

Transportation is an area that needs to be studied from a disability perspective. Different types of barriers exist when it comes to enabling persons with disability to comfortably perform routine activities such as driving a vehicle. Some of these barriers are due to lack of quantitative assessment techniques that will determine physical capabilities and ergonomic parameters related to the disabled person. The objective of this paper is to design an intelligent haptic interface for quantitative assessment of driving capabilities of persons with disabilities. A twenty two year old subject with Muscular Dystrophy was introduced to the task of steering wheel control. This task tested the subject’s ability to control different steering wheel diameters, angles of orientation, and fatigue after an extended control period.