An Open-Source Development and Simulation Platform for Smart Wheelchairs.

Simulator for smart wheelchairs is of great significance for both driver training and algorithm design. A development and simulation platform for wheelchairs is presented in this paper. On this platform, simulations of kinematics, dynamics and sensors are integrated, and a virtual prototype of wheelchair and virtual world are modled also. The sensors include encoders, a laser range finder and a set of Kinect. This platform is implemented in Gazebo and ROS, and is completely open source and freely available. Experiments verifies that this platform can be used as a valid tool for driver training and algorithm design.