The Effect of Force Sensor Arrays Integration into Textile for a Novel Head-Foot Wheelchair Steering System

In this paper a novel head-foot wheelchair steering system based on force sensor arrays (FSAs) for people diagnosed with dyskinetic cerebral palsy (DCP) is introduced. The user applies pressure on FSAs placed on the head, and foot supports of the electrically powered wheelchair (EPW), based on his/her intention to accelerate, brake, steer right or left. The microcontroller-based electronic system acquires and translates the mean voltage generated by the applied force into wheelchair control signals. In such a system, FSAs are integrated into the head support of the wheelchair using support materials and textiles for the comfort of the user, having an effect on the sensor readings. This work aims to explore the effect of integrating FSAs into the head support of the wheelchair using support material and textiles. Four different sensor integration approaches were examined and compared to baseline readings of a non-integrated FSA. It was found that when a maximum force of 80 N is applied to a single sensing element (sensel) the support material decreases the mean voltage by approximately 70%, and the sensor integration into textile has shown increases between 5.2 and 14.9% compared to the support material. Furthermore, when force is applied over multiple sensels, the support material accounts for a reduce in the mean voltage ranging from approximately 3 to 32%. The addition of textile has exhibited peak decrease in the mean voltage up to roughly 41% for the tested integrations.