This self-driving wheelchair may help people with disabilities cross the road

A "smart wheelchair" is being developed to use AI to help users avoid collisions, obstacles, and other hazards.

Transcript

00:00The biggest challenge is to ensure trustworthy AI. In order to make the system safe, what

00:10we want to do is to allow disabled people to navigate from point A to point B in urban

00:19environments, so complex environments with a lot of possible dangers, safely. In order

00:28to do that, you need to develop trustworthy AI techniques.

00:34This is an extension of the wheelchair. The drone will basically be part of the system

00:58and extend the viewpoint and perspective of the wheelchair. It will have additional sensors,

01:05especially an additional camera that will allow the wheelchair to see the environment

01:11from different perspectives and behind the obstacles. So this is very important, I would

01:17say essential, because it will increase the safety of the system. If you have occlusions

01:23that will make the wheelchair unable to see dangers, then the drone can be used

01:32to complement the vision of the wheelchair.