Team Name
Training Wheels
Timeline
Summer 2025- Fall 2025
Students
- Jackson Bond – Computer Science
- Seraphina Isaacs – Computer Engineering
- Alexander Jones – Software Engineering
- Chad Stanfield – Software Engineering
Sponsor
Dr. Shawn Gieser
Abstract
The VR wheelchair project is a Realtime, Immersive, interactive simulator designed to help new users with mobility impairments be better prepared for real-world environments. This project continues the work of the VirtuRoll team but with new features such as force feedback, improved wheelchair movement, enhanced ramp physics, and a less nauseating overall experience.
Background
The objective of the VR wheelchair simulator is to provide a realistic virtual environment that addresses the lack of accessible and safe training solutions for individuals with mobility impairments. Although a handful of similar simulators like this exist, most are used exclusively for academic research and are expensive to acquire.
Project Requirements
Real-time user interaction: The system must track the user’s movement in real time and reflect them in the virtual environment with minimal latency, ensuring a responsive and seamless experience
Accurate VR movement: The system must precisely translate the wheelchairs’ physical input into corresponding virtual movement, maintaining realistic motion and proper response to user control.
Virtual Environment Interaction: The VR environment should allow users to navigate using the wheelchair, providing smooth and immersive movement throughout the virtual space.
Force Feedback system: The system must provide physical feedback from the virtual environment to the wheelchair through a force feedback mechanism, enhancing realism and user immersion
Real-Time Data Integration: the system must ensure real-time synchronization of data across the VR headset, wheelchair controller, force feedback system, and any connected devices, maintaining a consistent user experience
User safety and comfort: the system must provide safety measures and ergonomic support to prevent accidents and discomfort, ensuring a comfortable experience for users with mobility impairments.
Modular Layer Design: The system should use a modular architecture in which each component (Wheelchair, Virtual Environment, VR headset) functions independently while integrating seamlessly to provide a unified experience.
Hardware Compatibility: The system must be designed as a modular kit that can be installed on a wide range of existing wheelchair models.
Simulator Performance: The simulator should run smoothly with no visible lag, delivering realistic motion at a minimum of 60FPS to help prevent motion sickness in the virtual environment
System Flexibility: The system should be compatible with existing assistive devices and designed with a modular architecture to support future upgrades, such as tilt tables or additional assistive technologies, enabling personalized accessibility for each user
Design Constraints
- Ethical: It is important to accurately represent the experiences of wheelchair users so the simulation remains realistic and respectful.
- Constructability: Make sure the wheelchair is compatible with the VR system and force feedback motor.
- Functionality: the system must consistently convert actions performed on the physical wheelchair into accurate responses within the virtual environment. Reliable tracking synchronized hardware behavior, and proper operation of the force feedback motor are essential to maintain immersion.
- Safety & Welfare: Prioritizing user comfort by reducing VR-induced motion sickness and ensuring stable comfort during extended interactions
- Ergonomic: Ensuring the physical setup and controls are comfortable, intuitive, and easy to operate, minimizing strain during prolonged use
Engineering Standards
- USB Standards (USB 2.0, USB 3.0): These standards enable reliable, high-speed data transfer and will be used between the VR system, the wheelchair and the force feedback system, ensuring a smooth and responsive operation
- IEEE 2048.1-2022 (Standard for Immersive Video Taxonomy and Quality Metrics): Enforced by the IEEE, this standard ensures high-quality immersive video and consistent performance across systems. The VR wheelchair system follows this standard by maintaining at least 60 FPS and smooth visual motion, providing a realistic and comfortable immersive experience
- W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1: Enforced by World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), These guidelines are important for making sure that digital content is accessible to everyone, including those with disabilities. Following these standards ensures that the VR experience is user-friendly for all
- Unreal Engine Marketplace Guidelines (for 3D environment assets): Enforced by Unreal Games. These guidelines ensure that all 3D assets used in the VR environment meet quality and compatibility standards within Unreal Engine
- ADA Standards for accessible Design: These standards guide the accurate representation of accessibility features, ensuring that the virtual environments reflect real-world accessibility considerations effectively
- ASTM F1574: Enforced by ATSM International, this standard outlines how a wheelchair should be mounted to a test surface to ensure it will endure stress testing.
- ISO/IEC 25010 (Software Quality Requirements): Enforced by ISO/IEC, this standard defines quality requirements for software systems. The VR wheelchair adheres to this standard through robust, maintainable, and reliable implementation
- IEEE 2700-2017 Standard for Sensor Performance Parameters: Enforced by IEEE, this standard defines performance requirements for sensors, including accuracy, resolution, and reliability. The VR wheelchair system follows this standard by ensuring all sensors meet accurate and reliable performance specifications
- IEC 60034-1 Rotating Electrical Machines Rating and Performance: Enforced by IEC(International Electrotechnical Commission), this standard defines rating and performance requirements for electric motors. The VR wheelchair system adheres with this standard by ensuring the wheelchair motors meet proper performance and safety specifications
- IEC 60335-1 Motor Safety and Thermal Protection: Enforced by IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission), this standard requires motors to reduce torque by 50% if coil temperatures exceed 70°C to prevent overheating. The VR wheelchair system adheres with this standard by thoroughly testing the motor to ensure to ensure it does not exceed the specified temperature during operation.
- ISO 7176-19: Wheelchair Fatigue Testing: Enforced by ISO (International Organization for Standardization), this standard limits sustained push force to 50 N to protect user ergonomics. The VR wheelchair system adheres by ensuring the motor resistance does not exceed this limit during operation.
- EN 12182 Assistive Products Safety: Enforced by CEN (European Committee for Standardization); this standard requires no pinch points within 150mm of rotating motor parts and an emergency stop that reduces the resistance to below 5N within 0.5 seconds. The VR wheelchair system adheres by ensuring motor components are safely enclosed and that the emergency stop meets these performance requirements
- ISO 13850 Emergency Stop (Category 0): Enforced by ISO, this standard requires the motor to cut power within 100ms when the emergency stop is triggered, and manual override must require a tool to prevent tampering. The VR wheelchair adheres by ensuring the e-stop immediately cuts motor power and the override is secured against unauthorized use
System Overview
The main strategy with which we plan to build this system is to utilize three overall “layers” or “systems”, each of which encompass some broad functionality, resource, or data within the project. The Virtual Environment Layer is the abstraction which handles resources and data which are located within the code of the application, or data which pertains specifically to the avatar’s simulated environment. The Quest Headset Layer encompasses the hardware of the VR Headset and its associated resources, in addition to the main computer which will run the simulation software and communicate with the other layers/systems. The Wheelchair Hardware Layer pertains to the linear actuators, motors, and encoders within the build, as well as the micro-controller which will be used to interface those resources with the rest of the project. Each layer/system has its own domain, but as it may rely on data which resides in another system, there exists an interface to get data from anywhere needed in the design. For example, the Virtual Environment Layer may not have its own methods or resources to tilt the user in provide friction to the user (as it is only concerned with maintaining accuracy within the virtual environment) but it can send that data through the main computer to the VR Headset so that visual output is accurate and also through the main computer to the micro-controller, which will then process the data into which actuators and/or motors should be activated and how.
Results
The VR wheelchair system has been enhanced to provide more accurate movement within virtual environments, an interactive force feedback system, and support for inclined ramps. The simulator has also been optimized to reduce nausea, providing a more comfortable and immersive VR experience
Future Work
While the current system offers many new improvements and additions in the accuracy of moving in the virtual environment and receiving force feedback, there are a few areas that need to be improved on:
Force Feedback tuning: The system currently includes force feedback, but future iterations may require calibration to achieve accurate physical responses
Integration of a Tilt table: The system should incorporate tilt functionality to simulate posture changes, providing a more immersive and realistic experience for users, particularly those who require posture adjustments while navigating
Project Files
Project Charter
System Requirements Specification
Architectural Design Specification
Detailed Design Specification
Color-Coded Wiring Schematic
Basic Logic Block Diagram
Poster
