2017 International Conference on Advanced Computing and Communication Systems (ICACCS -2017), Jan.

06 – 07, 2017, Coimbatore, INDIA

Wireless Gesture Controlled Wheelchair

Rajesh Kannan Megalingam, Sarath Sreekanth, Govardhan A, Chinta Ravi Teja, Akhil Raj
Dept. of Electronics and Communication Engineering
Amrita School of Engineering, Amritapuri
Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Amrita University, India
[email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
[email protected]

Abstract— In this research work, we present a are not affordable by people of developing nations.
Bluetooth-based wheelchair which can be controlled II.MOTIVATION
by finger or hand gesture using an Android
application developed by us installed in smart gadget. According to the 2011 statistics of India, 20.3% of the
The device helps those deprived of motion in their day differently abled people have mobility issues. Their
to day activities. Even though there is a tremendous disability makes it impossible for them to have a normal
leap in this field, there are no facilities for the user to life. For some differently abled, movement can be a
control the wheelchair with less strain on their hands. complex issue. But, technology can make it simple, even
So this prototype will be a great help for the for them. 98% of the powered wheelchairs are joystick
differently abled users as they can control the based which is not suitable for all, some people might not
wheelchair by just moving their fingers or hands on have enough strength and may have difficulty while
the touchscreen. The prototype can be varied between operating them. In addition, customized wheelchairs are
touch and swipe. In some cases, the differently abled sold at high prices.
might not be able to control their fingers. In such
cases, since Bluetooth is used, a second person can Android’s open platform makes it possible to build
control the motion rather than pushing it. apps meeting specific needs and distribute them free of
cost. Since 64.8% of the smartphones in India are Android
Index Terms—Wheelchair, Bluetooth, Android based, it has a wide range when marketing the product is
application. concerned. The app can be shared among a selected group
of people beforehand and can easily get connected to the
I.INTRODUCTION slave Bluetooth to control the wheelchair. This flexibility
is a huge benefit when the user is unable to afford a
The objective of this research work is to develop a caretaker dedicated completely to him/her. Also, the
wireless control system using hand gesture with the help of pairing of the master and the slave requires a password
electronic gadgets like smartphones or tablet using the which makes it difficult for unauthorized people with the
Android application developed by us. The success of a app to control the wheelchair. So the product is affordable
technological product depends not only on its efficiency and secure.
but also on the way it interacts with the end users. The end
users are usually unaware of the undergoing processes that III.RELATED WORKS
are essential for the system to work efficiently. So the
interface should be as user-friendly by black boxing as Since the conventional controlled wheelchair lacks
many processes as possible. So the Android platform is universality, many customized wheelchairs with novel
chosen as it provides various open tools for this task. The ideas had been developed to address a specific section of
Arduino outputs control signals to the motor drivers, a differently abled. In the research paper [1], the Authors
master-slave configuration is used to connect the Android uses bend sensors to control the wheelchair. The bend
app with Arduino board, the smartphone acts as a master sensor is basically a voltage divider circuit. The bent
and the HC-05 Bluetooth module acts as a slave. fingers control the speed and the direction of motion. It
makes the control process very easy with little practice.
As per the studies were done by WHO (World Health But it might be difficult for a person other than the user to
Organization), it is estimated that out of 650 million operate it when such an emergency arises. In the research
peoples with disabilities 10% of them need wheelchairs for paper [2], the Authors proposes an EMG based signal
their day to day locomotion. The most commonly available processing system where predefined hand gestures are
control method is the joystick control for powered used for controlling the wheelchair. But it takes some time
wheelchair navigation. But all users cannot be comfortable for the user to get used to the system. The Authors in the
with a joystick as it requires strength and power to hold the research paper [3], proposes a voice based system. But
joystick and move. Due to varied strengths in hands all these systems are not cost effective and their efficiency is
users including elders, physically challenged, partially not on par with the other solutions when tested outside
paralyzed patients, quadriplegics, stroke patients, spinal laboratory conditions.
cord injury patients etc. cannot use the joystick.
Alternative control methods are available at huge cost and

978-1-5090-4559-4/17/$31.00©2017IEEE
2017 International Conference on Advanced Computing and Communication Systems (ICACCS -2017), Jan. 06 – 07, 2017, Coimbatore, INDIA

The research paper [4], emphasizes the need to use When the control input in 00 the motor will be in off state
non-conventional energy like solar energy for powering and when it is 11 the motor is in high impedance off state.
the wheelchair. The system, as the author admits, has When one wheel is rotating clockwise and other is rotating
some portability issues. They may be addressed by the counter-clockwise, then the wheelchair moves linearly. If
future technologies by reducing the size and weight of the wheels are rotating in the same direction the
solar panels. In the present day market, it is not cost wheelchair will turn left or right.
effective either. The authors of research paper [5]
developed a simulator to navigate the wheelchair, based Android-based Bluetooth wheelchair, as the name
on Dijkstra algorithm, between predefined locations. The suggests, works with the help of an Android app created
system can auto-navigate avoiding static and dynamic with MIT app inventor and Bluetooth. MIT app inventor 2
obstacles relieving the users a lot. But, it needs an explicit it is a platform where you can create an app very easily by
map of the surroundings of the user beforehand. The placing each and every component on the screen and
research paper [6] proposes a mechanical model using assign the functions by dragging and dropping the
only 2 wheels instead of the usual 4. The system aims to functions given for each of the components. As shown in
solve the problem of navigating through narrow passages Figure 1, the system uses Arduino to control the motor.
for which the 4 wheeled chair needs a lot of
maneuverings. As already mentioned the problem is a
complex one and needs a completely different solution
when the situation changes with the generally used 4
wheeled wheelchairs it is impossible for the elderly and
differently abled to go upstairs unless there is pavement to
the top The authors of research paper [7] proposes a novel
stair climbing wheelchair proposing systems to help
elderly and differently abled to climb stairs.

IV.SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE
Arduino Uno, a single board microcontroller is used
since the programming of Arduino is quite easy. It has
inbuilt RX and TX pins which make the interaction Figure 1. Wheelchair basic function.
between the microcontroller and the Bluetooth modules
easy. Also, it provides a user-friendly terminal to check the V.IMPLEMENTATION
values that are going to be sent to the slave Bluetooth.
Bluetooth, a secure protocol, is perfect for short range The first version of the app was such that the user can
wireless communication because of its low power and cost control the wheelchair by touching the buttons which are
efficiency. HC05, perfect for slave configuration is used in present in the Android application. But it had some
the system. It can be configured as slave using AT demerits. It couldn’t allow the user to connect to the
commands. When it is in slave mode, HC05 can accept but Bluetooth devices when the app is open and the app lacked
cannot initiate connections. The Android device (mostly speed control. Since it was found inconvenient to operate,
prefer tablet than mobile) acts as a master. the second version of the app was made.

The user can place his/her palm on the tablet and In the second version, since it is a little bit difficult to
move according to where they want to go. The tablet press the button for a long time, the button was replaced
display must be bigger so that the entire palm fits on the by a ball. So that the user can control the wheelchair by
tablet. The touchpad of the tablet will recognize the dragging his fingers on the top of the ball. The latest
movement of the palm and correspond to each movement, version of the app is designed in a way that a ball is
the tablet will send some data to the Bluetooth transmitter occupied in the center of the screen and it can be moved
and it will transmit the data through Bluetooth. At the to all the 4 directions. Also, a slider is given at the top of
receiver side, the Bluetooth receiver receives the data and the screen so that the user can set the speed by changing
passes the data into the microcontroller. The function of the slider. If the user wants to stop the app he can press
the microcontroller is to receive the incoming data and the exit button and the user can disconnect the Bluetooth
check if it is a control data or a PWM data. According to connection. When the user opens the app a screen, as
the data received the microcontroller will decode the data shown in Figure 2, Screen1 is displayed.
and output will be produced accordingly. The output is
given to two motor drivers. The motor drivers have two
digital inputs and one Analog PWM input. The
microcontroller can give various combinations of 0 and 1
to drive the motor. The motor works only when a polarity
exists. As there are 2 control inputs there can be 4
combinations that can occur. When the input is 01 or 10
the motor will rotate clockwise or counter clockwise.
2017 International Conference on Advanced Computing and Communication Systems (ICACCS -2017), Jan. 06 – 07, 2017, Coimbatore, INDIA

Figure 5. Blocks for Bluetooth connection.

These are the two components of a function called

“List Picker” as shown in Figure 5 when it is pressed it
will show the list of Bluetooth devices which are
previously connected to the master device. When we pick
any one from the list it will set the start value as the one we
picked and with that value, it will change the screen from
“Screen1” to “Screen2”. In Screen2, the start value is taken
Figure 2. Android application Screen1. as the address of the Bluetooth to connect.

The user will be directed to screen 2, as shown in

Figure 6, will be displayed whenever the user changes the
position of the ball that is when he drags the ball on the
screen, the app will send certain alphanumeric values to
Figure 3. Blocks for Bluetooth initialization. the slave Bluetooth from the Bluetooth of the smartphone.
If he moves the slider that is placed in the top of the screen
Since our app doesn’t work without Bluetooth, we the app will send an integer value between 30 and 100 to
need to make sure if it is enabled or not. If not, we need to the slave Bluetooth module. When he presses the exit
enable the Bluetooth from the app. As shown in Figure 3, button, the app will ask the user whether he wants to
when the screen “Screen 1” is started, the app checks if the disconnect the app or not. On the other side, the signal
Bluetooth is enabled or not. If not the app calls an activity from the smartphone will be received by the slave
called Bluetooth adapter enable request which is executed Bluetooth module and is given to the Arduino. In Arduino
with the help of an inbuilt function called “Activity according to the values given by the Bluetooth the controls
Starter”. It will show a notification like below. will be set, that is if the value is for the change of
direction, the required signals are sent to the motor driver
and the motor driver will control the motor. If the value is
for the speed, a control signal is directly sent to the
Arduino and is sent to the PWM pin of the motor driver
thus the speed of the motor is controlled.

Figure 4. Notification for enabling Bluetooth.

As shown in Figure 4, if we press the ALLOW, the

app will enable the Bluetooth and shows the first screen
where we can select which Bluetooth devices we need to
connect. Otherwise, the app will stop working and close
the screen. Figure 6. Android application Screen2.
2017 International Conference on Advanced Computing and Communication Systems (ICACCS -2017), Jan. 06 – 07, 2017, Coimbatore, INDIA

Figure 7. Blocks for sending.

Figure 7 shows a timer which is a component of the

function “Clock”. This will execute whatever inside the
timer every time the clock resets. For our app, we have
used a global variable named “global name” which will
contain the data to be sent after each function is executed.
We have used the “Bluetooth Client” function to send the
data to the slave board. Since the data is in character
format we are using “send text” feature of the Bluetooth
Client to send the data.

VI.EXPERIMENTS AND RESULTS

Figure 9. The latest version of the app.
As the part of experimentation, we made an app as
shown in Figure 8, which can control the motor with
Arduino through Bluetooth. This app includes 5 switches.
We made a circuit which consists of Arduino and 2
motors. Whenever the buttons in the app are pressed the
signals are sent to the Arduino through Bluetooth and
motors are rotated. The rotation of motors is controlled by
changing the signals from the application. That is each
button sends different signals to the Arduino.

Figure 10.1 Figure 10.2

Figure 10. Prototype used.

Later the app was changed in a way that it enables the

user to choose the speed of the motors. We tested our
prototype using different smart devices. Pairing time, the
time taken for the smart device to connect with the
Bluetooth module is calculated 100 times and the average
for different devices is shown in the Table1. We have
checked motion in each direction 100 times and it gave
and 98% success rate for the forward direction. In the
reverse direction, it was 100% and in right it was 99% and
left it was 98%. Thus from this, it gave a result of nearly
99%.
We also noted down the time taken for the system to
react to the command given by the user as shown in
table2. The prototype showed a varied response time for
different directions.
Figure 8. The primary version of the app.
TABLE I. PAIRING TIME (AVERAGE OF 100 READINGS)
As shown in Figure 9, in the second app that we made,
the switches are converted to a single circle. The app can
Android devices
send the signals when the user swipes his/her finger over
the circle. Instead of pressing switches we are swiping on Mobile 1 Mobile2 Tablet
Pairing time
the screen and whenever the user removes his/her finger 2.02 2.2 2.05
(sec)
from the screen the motors will stop. The user can vary
between using a single finger or hand gesture depending
on their strength to control the wheelchair as shown in
Figure 10.
2017 International Conference on Advanced Computing and Communication Systems (ICACCS -2017), Jan. 06 – 07, 2017, Coimbatore, INDIA

TABLE II. RESPONSE TIME (AVERAGE OF 100 READINGS) [2]. V. Rajesh, P. Rajesh Kumar, D.V.R. Kotireddy, “SEMG
Response time Android devices based human-machine interface for controlling a
(milliseconds) Mobile 1 Mobile2 Tablet wheelchair by using ANN” on the proceedings of
Control, Automation, Communication and Energy
Forward 28.33 28.67 27.33 Conservation, 2009. INCACEC 2009. 2009 International
Backward 38.66 38 34 Conference.
[3]. Mohammed Faeik Ruzaij, Sebastian Neubert, Norbert
Left 38.33 25.5 38 Stoll, Kerstin Thurow, “Design and testing of low-cost
Right 30 22.50 33 three modes of operation voice controller
for wheelchairs and rehabilitation robotics” on the
proceedings of Intelligent Signal Processing (WISP),
V.CONCLUSION 2015 IEEE 9th International Conference.
[4]. Nida Riaz, Junaid Bin Aamir, “Electrical wheelchair
Thus, an effective wireless controlled wheelchair is with retractable solar panels” on the proceedings
developed for the differently abled which does not take of Energy Systems and Policies (ICESP), 2014
International Conference.
much effort to operate and uses immensely popular
[5]. Rajesh Kannan Megalingam, G B Vishnu, Meera Pillai,
Android platform. The open platform also allows further “Development of intelligent wheelchair simulator for
developments. The system can be programmed to be indoor navigation simulation and analysis” on the
controlled by palm movements rather than fingers. It can proceedings of Electrical and Computer Engineering
be made to auto navigate or use google maps to move (WIECON-ECE), 2015 IEEE International WIE
between pre-calibrated positions. Conference.
[6]. Sakurako Hamatani, Toshiyuki Murakami, “A novel
steering mechanism of a two-wheeled wheelchair for
ACKNOWLEDGMENT stability improvement” on the proceeding of Industrial
Electronics Society, IECON 2015 - 41st Annual
We thank God for making our efforts fruitful. We Conference of the IEEE.
thank Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetam and HUT lab for
providing this opportunity to make this research work a
success. Basilio Dobras Castillo,Yen-Fu Kuo, Jui-Jen Chou,
“Novel design of a wheelchair with stair climbing
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