Image: Purdue University Professor Brad Duerstock uses his experience as a wheelchair user to conduct research to improve transportation accessibility.
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Credit: Purdue University Photography/John Underwood
WEST LAFAYETTE, IN – When Brad Deerstock was 18, a spinal cord injury left him with paralyzed arms and legs, requiring him to use the controls he had left in his hands to operate his power wheelchair.
In the more than 30 years since then, Duerstock has watched smartphones, tablets, and other types of technology develop but not be usable by him or others with disabilities for years. I was.
“It was always a retroactive adjustment,” he said.
Dewarstock, a professor of industrial engineering and biomedical engineering at Purdue University, is working to change that for self-driving cars when the technology is still in its infancy. The goal is to make sure that when these vehicles become ubiquitous, they can accommodate everyone who wants to use them.
“It’s really the wrong way to try to find ways to adapt technology for wheelchair users after you’ve already developed it,” he said. “But instead, if we think, ‘This is all our needs met,’ and create some standards based on the minimum requirements of the population as a whole, we can meet those minimum standards. We can design vehicles according to
Helping establish standards for autonomous vehicle accessibility
Duerstock and Brandon Pitts are assistant professors of industrial engineering at Purdue University and have been collaborating for four years on topics related to technology accessibility and inclusive design.
These ideas are becoming part of a major national conversation about how to make autonomous transportation more inclusive.
Earlier this week, Duerstock was a panelist in a webinar on accessibility and transportation hosted by Challenge.Gov. Challenge.Gov is a program that crowdsources innovative solutions to important problems through federally sponsored prize competitions.
Duerstock shared how he and Pitts jointly led a team to develop design concepts that would help the industry make self-driving cars accessible to people with disabilities. Their team’s design concept won him first place in a US Department of Transportation competition this summer. Called the Inclusive Design Challenge, the goal of the competition is to foster the innovation needed to ensure that, when autonomous transportation becomes widespread, it will be able to accommodate people with travel-limiting disabilities and mobility challenges. That’s it.
The winning design not only considered the transportation challenges faced by people with disabilities, but was awarded to Duerstock, Pitts, and Indiana-based companies that have been designing and manufacturing vehicle accessibility solutions since 1972. It’s based on a long-standing idea created among some BraunAbility. Duerstock recently opened in the Indianapolis area and he is one of the first wheelchair users to provide feedback on new product designs at the BraunAbility Global Innovation Lab.
Phil Bell, Senior Director of Global Corporate Strategy at Braun Ability, said: “It’s always good for users to come in and say, ‘I don’t like this interface,’ or, ‘I can’t see where they’re going backwards in their wheelchair.’ They will help guide us.”
By the time Duerstock, Pitts, and Bell heard about the Inclusive Design Challenge, they recognized the opportunity for self-driving cars to change the lives of people with disabilities and were working to design a solution.
“BraunAbility, along with Purdue, have been thinking about accessibility from the beginning and are able to provide OEMs with those considerations early in the design process,” Bell said.
What a comprehensive self-driving car might look like
For the inclusive design challenge, the team built an automated vehicle-like prototype. It demonstrates the capabilities autonomous driving needs to serve people with various disabilities. The researchers are calling the prototype EASI RIDER. It stands for “efficient, accessible and safe interaction in a truly integrated design environment for riders with disabilities”.
Although EASI RIDER is not meant to be driven (it does not have a motor), the researchers are able to master all of the vehicle’s various controls on their own, whether the person’s disability is physical or sensory. I have shown that it works.
EASI RIDER not only features a voice-activated wheelchair-friendly ramp, but also uses sensors to prevent the ramp from unintentionally deploying into obstacles when parking. A mechanism within the EASI RIDER helps secure the wheelchair in the safest position while riding. The prototype can accommodate up to two wheelchair users at a time and features reconfigurable seating for non-wheelchair riders. Cameras and sensors help passengers understand their surroundings better inside the vehicle and allow remote operators to communicate with passengers in emergency situations when they may need assistance.
Travelers can use their personal mobile phones or tablets to control vehicle functions such as interior lighting, horns, headlights and entertainment. In-vehicle screens help riders who are deaf or unable to press buttons with their hands see the operator or access a map of the route.
“Many features in the vehicle were intended to enable what we call a ‘seamless travel experience’. This means that interacting with a vehicle is so natural that people are unaware that they are interacting with it. ‘ said Pitts, who has been researching how elderly populations interact with various autonomous systems.
Pitts’ research influenced the design of EASI RIDER’s features. “With the aim of enabling older adults to better use digital technology, many of the same design solutions tested in my lab are also used to support individuals with various disabilities. We can,” said Pitts.
The EASI RIDER prototype also incorporated input from people with disabilities, including BraunAbility’s Driving Force, through surveys, interviews and interactive demonstration sessions. EASI RIDER is built using parts and expertise from BraunAbility plus his three companies: Local Motors, Schaeffler and Prehensile Technologies (a start-up run by his Jeffrey Ackerman alumni of Duerstock and Purdue) it was done. Based on the robotic desk and table concept co-invented by Duerstock and patented through the Purdue Research Foundation Office of Technology Commercialization, Prehensile Technologies specializes in the use of robotics and power sensor systems for wheelchair users. Prehensile Technologies is a client of his Purdue Foundry, a hub of entrepreneurship and commercialization. Its experts help Purdue’s innovators create startups.
EASI RIDER components are technology that has already helped people with disabilities in a variety of situations. For example, Schaeffler contributed car controls that allow wheelchair users to drive a car. How these parts are integrated is what makes the design so innovative.
“As we were finishing the process of building EASI RIDER, I felt like I was stepping into it and standing in the future,” Bell said. “I’ve never seen an integration like this anywhere. This is the first iteration of what’s to come.”
Thinking about the future of transportation
The EASI RIDER team won the Inclusive Design Challenge and won $1 million. Duerstock and Pitts plan to use the prize money to establish a Center for Designing Accessible Transportation at Purdue University. Through this center, Purdue researchers will work with industry partners and government agencies to continue working toward a comprehensive vehicle design standard.
“We believe our work will help build a more equitable future for transportation, which in turn will promote a higher quality of life for people across the spectrum of ability and at different points in time,” said Pitts. Told.
The team will also continue to research ways to develop universal techniques for a wide range of disabilities. “I have my own point of view, but it’s not everyone’s,” Duerstock said. “It takes some depth to understand what everyone needs.”
