Mobility Assistance for Older People

Abstract

This paper describes the development of a scooter supporting the mobility of older people. The scooter is equipped with a drive assistance system and a special scooter navigation system. The drive assistance system consists of a velocity controller, a steering controller, and a collision avoidance system. In this paper it is demonstrated how the challenging control and steering tasks are modified to increase safety for older people. A special scooter navigation system is presented, to support elderly people in navigating on a safe route through the city using sidewalks, pedestrian lights and crosswalks. For extended positioning requirements a hybrid positioning system was developed combining GPS, WLAN, and inertial sensor data. By combination of these technical improvements it is demonstrated how older people are able to preserve their self-determined and independent life. Usability research was done with focus groups in order to become familiar with global user demands and expectations towards a mobility assistance system. Results show that the system components are expected to assist the user in navigation, steering and speed control rather than to take complete control on the driving situation.

Motorized mobility scooters: the use of training/intervention and technology for improving driving skills in aging adults – a mini review

“…At this point, the search was further defined by specifying only those articles that addressed actual training/interventions and included inclusion criteria based on the entire manuscript, which led to the exclusion of another 18 articles. Six articles were considered to warrant full review, meeting the inclusion criteria, as outlined above [14,[23][24][25][26][27] (Figure 1). When the searches were rerun as previously and when the term "golf cart*" was added, an additional 269 potential articles were identified as potentially relevant.…”

“…Among these, four studies (67%) contained training approaches for MMS drivers [14,[23][24][25][26][27], one study (16.5%) involved infrastructural assessment [26], and one study (16.5%) used mobility assistive tools to improve driving skills/performance [27]. Among selected studies only two (33%) used control groups to demonstrate the benefit of intervention [14,24], and only one study utilized a randomized approach for assigning participants to control or experimental groups [24].…”

“…Among selected studies only two (33%) used control groups to demonstrate the benefit of intervention [14,24], and only one study utilized a randomized approach for assigning participants to control or experimental groups [24]. In two articles (33%), new technologies were introduced for improving driving performance [24,27].…”

“…In four studies (67%), participants were recruited with ambulatory complications related to: stroke, chronic obtrusive pulmonary disorder, multiple sclerosis, musculoskeletal disorder, athetoid cerebral palsy, amputation, central nervous system disorder, cerebral vascular accident, orthopedic injury/deformity, and spinal cord injury [23][24][25][26]. In two other studies (33%), interventions were performed on individuals without disabilities [14,27]. Inclusion criteria regarding prior experience in driving powered mobility devices differed between studies.…”

“…Inclusion criteria regarding prior experience in driving powered mobility devices differed between studies. Two studies (33%) excluded adults with prior MMS driving experience [14,27]; two studies (33%) included adults with prior experience of powered mobility driving [25,26]; and two other studies (33%) did not address subject's prior powered mobility device driving experience [23,24].…”