ISSN (Online) 2393-8021

IARJSET ISSN (Print) 2394-1588

International Advanced Research Journal in Science, Engineering and Technology

National Conference on Emerging Trends in Engineering and Technology (NCETET’16)
Lourdes Matha College of Science & Technology, Thiruvananthapuram
Vol. 3, Special Issue 3, August 2016

Voice Controlled Wheelchair using

Arduino
Apsana.S1, Renjitha G Nair2
Student ME, Dept. of Electronics & Communication, MCET, Nedumangadu, Kerala, India 1
Asst. Professor, Dept. of Electronics & Communication, MCET, Nedumangadu, Kerala, India 2

Abstract: The needs of many individuals with disabilities can be satisfied with traditional, manual or powered
wheelchairs. A segment of the disabled community finds it difficult or impossible to use wheelchairs. There is
extensive research on computer controlled chairs where sensors and intelligent control algorithms have been
used to minimize the level of human intervention. Here I describe design of a smart, m o t o r i z e d , v o i c e
controlled wheelchair for physically disabled people by using embedded s yste m. Proposed d e s i g n supports
v o i c e activation system fo r physically d i s a b l e d p e r s o n s incorporating manual operation. Arduino
microcontroller a n d speaker dependent voice recognition processor have been used to support t h e
navigation of the wheel chair. The wheelchair does not respond to a false speech command. Depending on the
direction selected on the joystick, microcontroller controls the wheelchair directions. This can be controlled
through the voice commands also. By using ultrasonic sensors we can avoid obstacles

Keywords: Controlled chairs where sensors and intelligent control, wheelchair, joystick, microcontroller controls

1. INTRODUCTION

”World report on disability” (2011) jointly presented The problem is that in some cases the disability results
by World Health Organization (WHO) and World in the loss of ability to use hands. The way of
Bank says that there are 70 million people are controlling a power wheelchair can be using a joystick
handicapped in the world. Unfortunately, day by day and it therefore does require certain manual skills or
the number of handicapped p e o p l e is going on using speech commands for hands-free patients leading
increasing due to road accidents as well as the disease to an interesting and promising outcome. The seat
which leading paralysis. Among people with adjustment for the user friendly movement is includes as
disabilities, percentage of physically shown figure 1.1
hand icapped p e r s o n is most. If a person is
handicapped, he is dependent on other person for 2. METHODOLOGY
his day to day work like transport, food, orientation
etc. So a voice operated w h e e l chair is developed 2.1 BLOCK DIAGRAM
which will operate automatically on the commands The proposed block diagram is shown in figure.
from the handicapped u s e r for movement purpose. Use
of electrical wheelchair leads to a large amount of
independence for persons with a physical disability who
can neither walk nor operate a mechanical wheelchair
alone.
Figure 2.1: Block diagram

2.2 VOICE RECOGNITION SYSTEM

Firstly voice recognition module means a system for
computer analysis of the human voice, especially for the
purposes of interpreting words and phrases or
identifying an individual voice. Here we have to use a
voice recognition module to detect and convert detected
voice command into binary signal.

2.3 VOICE INPUT

Spell voice input for further processing is the first
step of voice recognition. As the proposed system for
Figure 1.1 voice recognition is based on voice of person with

Copyright to IARJSET DOI 10.17148/IARJSET 332

 ISSN (Online) 2393-8021
IARJSET ISSN (Print) 2394-1588

International Advanced Research Journal in Science, Engineering and Technology

National Conference on Emerging Trends in Engineering and Technology (NCETET’16)
Lourdes Matha College of Science & Technology, Thiruvananthapuram
Vol. 3, Special Issue 3, August 2016

physically challenged person to move inside the home 1. Forward: Motor 1 FW and Motor 2 RW.
without any difficulty. 2. Reverse: Motor 1 RW and Motor 2 FW.
3. Left: Both motors are in FW.
2.4 OBSTACLE DETECTION 4. Right: Both motors are in RW.
A sensor is an electronic instrument which is used to 5. Stop: Both motors are stopped.
sense certain characteristics of its surroundings by
either emitting and/or detecting infra red radiation. When the voice is detected, the wheelchair can be
With the full fledged Design and Implementation of a controlled to move in that direction by giving
Voice Actuated Miniature Model of Wheelchair, commands to the wheelchair. These commands are
Handicapped Person will be able to do his/her day to transferred to the wheelchair using electrical signals
day activity at own without taking help from others which are used to drive the left or right motor of the
with user safety. This can be done with just a voice wheelchair.
command of Handicapped Person which is readily
trained to proposed system.
End results of the work would be a wheelchair that
operated with speaker dependent voice with high
degree of accuracy and reliability.

3. VOICE CONTROLLED WHEEL CHAIR

SYSTEM

Mainly this system consists of two modules.

1. Hardware module Figure 4.1:Block Diagram
2. Software module
There are basically two motors connected to the left
3.1 HARDWARE MODULE and right wheels of the wheelchair. The electrical
Hardware module consists of signals are transferred to these motors using some
1. Microcontroller hardware ports, called the communication ports.
2. Motor driver Generally, the communication port is the parallel port.
3. Ultrasonic sensors There are some basic predefined pins of this parallel
4. DC Motors port which accept the commands given to the
5. Microphone wheelchair in the form of electrical signals. Four
wheels are used in the wheelchair for proper balancing.
3.2 SOFTWARE MODULE The movement of wheels is controlled by DC motors
Software module ,mainly consists of two softwares for which are attached to the wheelchair. Two wheels
controlling entire working. They are located on left side of the wheelchair are controlled by
1. Visual Basic Software one motor and similarly the wheels on the right side
2. Arduino Compiler are controlled by the second motor.

4. HARDWARE MODULE 4.2 COLLISION AVOIDANCE FUNCTION

In this work, the user controls the wheelchair by the
4.1 WORKING interactive operation. Then, system prevents the
Figure 4.1 shows a schematic of experimental setup wheelchair from taking incorrect movement by false
containing hardware as well as software module. Input recognition. How- ever, there is a problem of colliding
is taken through microphone. Speech signal is with the wall or obstacle by delaying the voice
processed with the help of visual basic software and command. Therefore, collision avoidance function
is transfer to the Microcontroller. Microcontroller (CAF)is implemented. CAF consists of the stop
converts these instructions into certain commands that movement, the avoidance movement, and deceleration
can be recognized by the motors. This controls the movement by using sensor in- formation. The
movement and direction of wheel chair through motor thresholds of the sensor to each movement is set. If
driver. Microcontroller decides the operation of the any of the sensor’s value becomes less than the
two DC motors depending on the given instruction. threshold, the wheelchair applied assigned movement.
Firstly, Voice module is trained with 4 commands.
After that the voice command is send by the user. The 1. Stop movement
microcontroller is used to check the signal associated The stop movement is set to prevent collision to
with this command and compare it with the stored both the stationary obstacle such as the wall and
commands and performs the task related to this moving obstacle such as person. This movement
command. The wheel chair directions and movement works immediately if one of the sensors is less than the
possible are as given below. threshold.

Copyright to IARJSET DOI 10.17148/IARJSET 333

 ISSN (Online) 2393-8021
IARJSET ISSN (Print) 2394-1588

International Advanced Research Journal in Science, Engineering and Technology

National Conference on Emerging Trends in Engineering and Technology (NCETET’16)
Lourdes Matha College of Science & Technology, Thiruvananthapuram
Vol. 3, Special Issue 3, August 2016

Arduino compiler will process the instruction received

by the microcontroller and convert them into certain
commands that can be recognized by the motors.
Software part can be mainly divided into 3 parts
according to the working.
1. Sensor part
2. Serial communication
3. Manual control
First ,initializing the public variable will take place.
Figure 4 . 2 : Avoidance Movement After that all 3 functions mentioned above will start.
All these works are processed at a time, so it is called
2. Avoidance movement parallel processing. Once the program starts there is
The stop movement increases the running time. Though no end or a stop, ie it will act as a loop until the
this movement is useful when wheelchair turns or power switched off.
rotates, it is less convenient when the wheelchair
goes forward. The avoidance movement provides the 6. ADVANTAGES
reduction of this problem. This movement rotates the
posture of the wheelchair to parallel to the wall or 1. Less Hardware is required i.e. compact.
obstacle when the wheelchair diagonally closes the 2. User friendly.
wall or obstacle as shown in figure 4.2. Figure 4.3 3. A handicapped person with voice or Hand can use
shows the avoidance scene. The wheelchair approaches this and become Independent.
the wall from the diagonal direction (a)-(b).When two 4. Economical.
sensors IR3 and IR4 detects small distances less than 5. Reduce manpower
the threshold, CAF is applied as shown figure (c)-(d)
respectively, and the wheelchair rotates toward the 7. LIMITATIONS
parallel posture of the wall.
The main limitation is taking a Wheelchair Up and
Down Stairs and Curbs.

1. Going Up the stairs

2. Going Down the stairs
3. Going up a curb
4. Going down a curb

8. CONCLUSION & FUTURE SCOPE

Recent advancements in the technology are making

lives easier for everybody. The system was successfully
Figure 4.3 : Avoidance Scene implemented to move the wheelchair left, right, forward,
backward or stay in same position. This work is to help
3. Deceleration movement the disabled persons by providing alternative methods
This movement reduces the moving speed so that the to control the equipment either by joystick or through
user avoids the wall or obstacle himself by voice voice, there by serving many disabilities. Thus the
command before applying the stop movement when a wheelchair understands the signals coming from control
closed wall or obstacle is reached. The deceleration system and reacts accordingly.
movement works if one of the sensors is less than the A smart wheelchair using voice and head joystick control
threshold is designed and developed. It is easy to understand and
process. It contains two modules to control the
5. SOFTWARE movement of the wheelchair according to user
commands. If any patient is unable to move hand
In this project, the whole working is controlled mainly then voice commands can be used for the navigation
by two softwares. of the wheelchair independently. The joystick
1. Visual basic provides help for the manual control. A microphone
2. Arduino compiler can be used to give voice commands. This system
Visual basic software is used to compare process and provides independent mobility as well as many
convert the voice signal given through the microphone intelligent facilities to the rising disabled population.
to certain instruction that is already stored. These Efficiency of the voice command control system can be
instructions are given to the microcontroller. further improved by implementing neural network

Copyright to IARJSET DOI 10.17148/IARJSET 334

 ISSN (Online) 2393-8021
IARJSET ISSN (Print) 2394-1588

International Advanced Research Journal in Science, Engineering and Technology

National Conference on Emerging Trends in Engineering and Technology (NCETET’16)
Lourdes Matha College of Science & Technology, Thiruvananthapuram
Vol. 3, Special Issue 3, August 2016

based algorithms. As the future work, we can provide

a friendly atmosphere for disabled persons that is
alerting in case of obstacles and updating the whole
indoor environment condition to wheel chair and
giving controlling of the devices at wheel chair itself
which avoids the problem of approaching the switch.
To be able to perform a wheelchair transfer up or
down a set of stairs, it is important to have 2
people available to help the user in the process. The
user can not attempt this type of transfer if helpers are
not available .A wheelchair up and down (step)
movement is very difficult ,even if there is a helper.
In order to overcome this problem, WHEELCHAIR
TREADS can be used. The person using the wheelchair
should be seated with their entire body fitting in the
chair. A seat belt should be used in order to keep the
patient/user in the chair while attempting the transfer.

Figure 8.1: Wheelchair Treads

REFERENCES

[1] Jayesh K. Kokate, A. M. Agarkar, ”Voice Operated Wheel

Chair”, International Jour- nal of Research in Engineering and
Technology (IJRET), Volume: 03 Issue: 02, Feb-2014.
[2] Atul Kumar, Prashant Singh, Amit Kumar, S. K Pawar,
Speech Recognition Based Wheelchair Using Device Switching,
International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced
Engineering (IJETAE), Volume 4, Issue 2, February 2014.
[3] Voice Operated Intelligent Wheelchair by Ms. S. D.Suryawanshi
, Mr. J. S. Chitode , Ms. S. S. Pethakar,International Journal
of Advanced Research in Computer Science and Software
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[4] Voice and Touch Screen Based Direction and Speed Control of
Wheel Chair for Phys- ically Challenged Using Arduino by
M.Prathyusha, K. S. Roy, Mahaboob Ali Shaik, International
Journal of Engineering Trends and Technology (IJETT)
,Volume4Issue4, April 2013.
[5] A Wheelchair Steered through Voice Commands and Assisted
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Urbano Nunes Journal of Intelligent and Robotic Systems 34:
301314, 2002
[6] Journal by Takashi Gomi and Ann Griffith, applied AI Systems,
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[8] D. A. Bell, S. P Levine, Y. Koren,, L. A Jaros, J.
Borenstein,, ”Design Criteria f o r Obstacle Avoidance in a
Shared-Control System”, RESNA94, Nashville,1994.

Copyright to IARJSET DOI 10.17148/IARJSET 335