Abstract:
This paper is concerned with the development of a
real-time obstacle avoidance system for an autonomous
wheelchair using stereoscopic cameras by severely disabled
people. Based on the left and right images captured from
stereoscopic cameras mounted on the wheelchair, the optimal
disparity is computed using the Sum of Absolute Differences
(SAD) correlation method. From this disparity, a 3D depth
map is constructed based on a geometric projection algorithm.
A 2D map converted from this 3D map can then be employed to
provide an effective obstacle avoidance strategy for this
wheelchair. Experiment results obtained in a practical
environment show the effectiveness of this real-time
implementation.
