Line following Wheelchair Robot

The WHO estimates that by 2030 there will be a projected shortfall of 18 million healthcare workers mostly in low to middle income countries.  The current trend of a lack of trained medical professionals has made it difficult for patients to receive timely care. Critical patients often need to be moved between various departments in the hospital and be treated by multiple professionals. Delays in ensuring movement of critical patients could result in catastrophic health consequences or loss of life. To prevent this we developed a proof of concept under the guidance of the Indian Institute of Science to move patients in wheelchairs between various wards along a predefined path. 

 

We created a robot that was equipped with two IR sensors that would lie on the two edges of the guiding line. Open CV was used to identify dark regions within the images picked up by the sensors. If either of the sensors detected significant dark regions, the robot was directed to move in a direction opposite to the sensor that detected it, i.e. if the left sensor detected the dark line, the robot was moved to the right, otherwise the robot moved in a straight line.