Robotic wheelchair for residential care centres and airports
Residents at De Drie Platanen residential care centre in Ostend were recently given the opportunity to try out a fully autonomous wheelchair and it passed the test! Over time, the intention is to launch this European innovation commercially on a widespread basis.
The smart wheelchair is certainly a godsend, as it takes a time-consuming task off the hands of the nursing and care staff, who are already extremely busy. Simply enter the destination on a tablet and it will automatically drive at 3-4 mph to the specified location. Meanwhile, the attendant can bring another resident or carry additional materials along with them. Sounds simple, you might say, but in reality, the device incorporates quite a large amount of advanced technology, including two cameras that prevent collisions, sensors that scan the environment, software that communicates with lifts via wireless internet to enable the wheelchair to proceed to a different floor and a 5G card which, even in the event of an electrical or Wi-Fi breakdown, can still get the resident in their wheelchair to the restaurant, the cafeteria or the hairdresser without error. During the pilot phase, the wheelchair will still carry out all of its tasks under supervision, though the intention is that having a person looking on while the wheelchair does its work will ultimately become unnecessary. The regulations concerning the protection of privacy, however, mean that the wheelchair itself is not allowed to see inside the rooms themselves.
In addition to residential care centres, autonomous wheelchairs could also be useful in hospitals, or at airports as a means of smoothly transporting those who are no longer able to walk from locations such as the check-in desk to the gate.