Abstract
The purpose of this review is to present studies on the parameters for assessing the skills of users of electric wheelchair driving simulators in a virtual environment. In addition, this study also aims to identify the most widely used and validated parameters for the quantification of electric wheelchair driving ability in a virtual environment and to suggest challenges for future research. To carry out this research, the criteria of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) were adopted. Literature searches in English, French, and Portuguese were conducted up to December 2020 in the PubMed, SciELO, Science Direct, World Wide Science, and Scopus databases. The keywords used were electric wheelchair, simulator, performance indicators, performance skills, driving skills, training platform, virtual environment, and virtual reality. We excluded studies involving “real” wheelchairs without a simulator in a virtual environment. We have selected a total of 42 items. In these studies, we identified 32 parameters (3 qualitative and 29 quantitative) that are used as parameters for the evaluation of the ability to control a powered wheelchair in a virtual environment. Although the amount of research in this area has increased significantly in recent years, additional studies are still needed to provide a more accurate and objective assessment of skills among the target population. A challenge for future work is the increasing application of artificial intelligence techniques and the exploration of biomedical data measurements, which may be a promising alternative to improve the quantification of user competencies.
Graphical abstract
Similar content being viewed by others
Data availability
All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article.
Abbreviations
- ECG:
-
Electrooculography
- EEG:
-
Electroencephalography
- EMG:
-
Electromyography
- EPW:
-
Electric powered wheelchair
- GSR:
-
Galvanic skin response
- PCI:
-
Physiological cost index
- PMRT:
-
Power mobility road test
- PRISMA:
-
Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses
- QoE:
-
Quality of experience
References
Diez P, 2018 Smart wheelchairs and brain-computer interfaces. Elsevier - Academic Press
Zolotas M, Elsdon J, and Demiris Y, 2018“Head-mounted augmented reality for explainable robotic wheelchair assistance,” in International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, 1823–1829.
Guillaume Vailland Y. G, Grzeskowiak F, Louise Devigne, R. L. B. Bastien Fraudet, Emilie Leblong, Florian Nouviale, Francois Pasteau, Sylvain Guegan M. B, Gouranton V, Arnaldi B, 2019 “User-centered design of a multisensory power wheelchair simulator: towards training and rehabilitation applications,” in IEEE 16th International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics (ICORR)
Škrabaa A, Stojanovi R, Zupanc A, Koložvari, and Kofjacˇ D, 2015“Speech-controlled cloud-based wheelchair platform for disabled persons,” Microprocess. Microsyst., 17, 48
Rabhi Y, Mrabet M, Fnaiech F (2018) A facial expression controlled wheelchair for people with disabilities. Comput Methods Programs Biomed 165:89–105
Silva A. N, Morère Y, Naves E. L. M, Sa A. A. R , Soares A. B, 2013 “Virtual electric wheelchair controlled by electromyographic signals,” in 2013 ISSNIP Biosignals and Biorobotics Conference: Biosignals and Robotics for Better and Safer Living (BRC)
Borges LR, Martins FR, Naves EL (2016) Electric-powered wheelchair control using eye tracking techniques. Int J Innov Res Comput Commun Eng 4(9):16690–16695
Fehr L, Langbein W, Skaar S (2000) Adequacy of power wheelchair control interface for persons with severe disabilities: a clinical survey. J Rehabil Res Dev 37(1):353–360
Barea R. Boquete L. Lopes E, Mazo M, 2000 “Guidance of a wheelchair using electrooculography,” in IEEE 4th World CSCC (Circuits, Systems, Communications & Computers, CSCC 2000)
Wästlund E, Sponseller K, Pettersson O, Bared A (2015) Evaluating gaze-driven power wheelchair with navigation support for persons with disabilities. J Rehabil Res Dev 52:815–826
Martins F. R, 2017 “Simulador para treinamento de cadeirantes em ambiente virtual acionado por comandos musculares e/ou visuais,” Universidade Federal de Uberlândia
Martins F. R, Salgado D. P, Naves E. L. M, 2016 “Realidade Virtual e tecnologia assistiva: ambiente seguro para treinamento de cadeirantes controlado por sinais eletromiográficos,” in IX Simpósio em Engenharia biomédica, 86–89.
Simpson R, Lopresti E, Cooper R (2008) How many people would benefit from a smart wheelchair. J Rehabil Res Dev 45(1):53–72
Wood JM, Worringham C, Kerr G, Mallon K, Silburn P (2005) Quantitative assessment of driving performance in Parinson´s disease. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 76:176–180
Morère Y, Bourhis G, Cosnuau K, Guilmois G, Rumilly E, Blangy E, 2018 “ViEW: a wheelchair simulator for driving analysis,” Assist. Technol. Off. J. RESNA, 1–11
Lee Kirby FRR, Miller WC, Louise Demers JMP, Alex Mihailidis MM, Rushton PW, Titus L, Cher Smith BS, Theriault C, Thompson K (2015) Effectiveness of a wheelchair skills training program for powered wheelchair users: a randomized controlled trial. Arch Phy. Med Rehabil 9(6):2017–2026
Moghaddam A. K et al., 2011 “Mobility profile and wheelchair driving skills of powered wheelchair users: sensor-based event recognition using a support vector machine classifier,” in 33rd Annual International Conference of the IEEE EMBS, 7336–7340.
Erren-Wolters CV (2007) Virtual reality for mobility devices: training applications and clinical results: a review. Int journ rehab res 30:91–96
Pithon K (2009) Weiss, Richir, “Wheelchairs simulators: a review.” Technol Disabil 21:1–10
Niniss H, Nadif A, 2000 “Simulation of the behaviour of a powered wheelchair using virtual reality,” in 3rd International Conference on Disability, Virtual Reality and Associated Technologies, 9–14.
Spaeth D, Cooper R, Guo S, Chaves E (2002) The application of optical sensors for quantifying electric powered wheelchair driving skill. RESNA 2002:258–260
Kamaraj DC, Dicianno BE, Schmid M, Boyanoski T, Cooper RA (2014) Quantifying power wheelchair driving ability. Conference Proceedings RESNA 2014:1–4
Archambault P, Blackburn E, Reid D, Routhier F, Miller W. C, 2015“Development and user validation of driving tasks for a power wheelchair simulator,” in International Conference on Virtual Rehabilitation (ICVR)
Nunnerley J, 2016 “Training wheelchair navigation in immersive virtual environments for patients with spinal cord injury,” Disabil. Rehabil. Assist. Technol
Inman DP, Loge K, Cram A, Peterson M (2011) Learning to drive a wheelchair in virtual reality. J Spec Educ Technol 26(3):21–34
Ktena S. I, Abbot W, Faisal A. A, 2015 “A virtual reality platform for safe evaluation and training of natural gaze-based wheelchair driving,” in 7th International IEEE/EMBS Conference on Neural Engineering Montpellier, 236–239
Abellard P, 2010 “Electric wheelchair navigation simulators: why, when, how?,” Mechatron. Syst. Appl., 161–168
Arlati S, Colombo V, Ferrigno G, Sacchetti R, Sacco M, 2019 “Virtual reality-based wheelchair simulators: a scoping review,” Assist. Technol., 1–12
Moher D, Liberati A, Tetzlaff J, and D. G, 2009 “Preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses: the PRISMA statement,” BMJ, vol. 339, no. b2535, 1–8
Moher D, Liberati A, Tetzlaff J, Altman DG (2009) Preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses: the PRISMA statement. PLoS Med 6(7):e1000097
Brunnhuber K, Chalmers I, Chalkidou K, Clarke M (2006) How to formulate research recommendations. BMJ 333(7572):804–806
Archambault PS (2012) Driving performance in a power wheelchair simulator. Disabil Rehabil Assist Technol 7(3):226–233
Grant M, Harrison C, Conway B, 2010 “The enhancement of a virtual reality wheelchair simulator to include qualitative and quantitative performance metrics,” J. Assist. Technol., 20–31
Crichlow L. R, 2011 “Development of a comprehensive mathematical model and physical interface for manual wheelchair simulation,” University of Toronto
Harrison CS, Grant M, Conway BA (2004) Haptic interfaces for wheelchair navigation in the built environment. Presence 5:520–534
Buxbaum LJ, Palermo MA, Mastrogiovann D, Schmidt M (2008) Assessment of spatial attention and neglect with a virtual wheelchair navigation task. J Clin Exp Neuropsychol Publ details Incl Instr 0(6):650–660
Archambault P, Gagnon D, Routhier F, Miller W (2016) Effectiveness of power wheelchair simulator training, delivered at home, on wheelchair driving skills. Ann Phys Rehabil Med 59:37–38
Caetano D et al (2020) Proposal of an augmented reality telerehabilitation system for powered wheelchair user´s training. J Commun Inf Syst 35(1):51–60
Kamaraj D.C, Dicianno B.E, Mahajan H. P, Buhari A. M, Cooper R.A. 2016 “Inter-rater reliability of the power mobility road test in the virtual reality based simulator-2,” Arch. Phys. Med. Rehabil., 2, 5
Kamaraj D.C, Mahajan H, Terhorst L, 2016 “Discriminative ability of the quantitative electric powered wheelchair driving metrics in VRSIM-2,” Arch. Phys. Med. Rehabil., 47
Valentini C.A.M, 2019 “Protocolo para condução de cadeira de rodas motorizada usando realidade virtual,” Universidade Federal de Uberlandia
Stredney D, Yagel R, Carlson W, Möller T, Shih P.W, Fontana M. 1997 “Assessing user proficiency through virtual simulations,” in Proceedings of RESNA’97, annual meeting of the Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology Society of North America, 366–368.
Zatlaa K.C.H, Morère Y, Hadj-Abdelkader A, Bourhis G, Demet K, Guilmois G, Bigaut N, 2018 “Preview distance index for the analysis of powered wheelchair driving,” IRBM
Niniss H, Nadif A, 2003 “Simulation system for powered wheelchairs: evaluation of driving skills using virtual reality,” in Assistive Technology: Shaping the Future : AAATE’03, 112–116.
Salgado D, Rodrigues T, Martins F, Keighrey C. 2018 “A QoE assessment method based on EDA, heart rate and EEG of a virtual reality assistive technology system,” in Proceedings of the 9th ACM Multimedia Systems Conference, 517–520.
Borges L.R, Martins F. R, Naves E, Bastos T, Lucena V. 2016 “Multimodal system for training at distance in a virtual or augmented reality environment for users of electric-powered wheelchairs,” in International Federation of Automatic Control, 156–160.
Gacem A, Monacelli E, Wang T, Rabreau O, Al‑ani T, 2019 “Assessment of wheelchair skills based on analysis of driving style,” Cogn. Technol. Work, pp. 1–15
Spaeth D, Mahajan H, Karmarar A, Collins D, Cooper R, Boninger M, 2008 “Development of a wheelchair virtual driving environment: trials with subjects with traumatic brain injury,” Arch Phys Med Rehabil., pp. 996–1003
Morére Y, Abdelkader H, Cosnuau K, Guilmois G, Bourhis G, 2015 “Haptic control for powered wheechair driving assistance,” IRBM, no. 293–304
Archambault P.S, Chong J.N.F, Sorrento G, Routhier F, Boissy P, 2011 “Comparison of powered wheelchair driving performance in a real and in a simulated environment,” in International Conference on Virtual Rehabilitation
Silva Y, Souza V, Naves E, Filho T, V. L. Jr;, 2018 “Teleoperation training environment for new users of electric powered wheelchairs,” in The 8th International Conference on Current and Future Trends of Information and Communication Technologies in Healthcares (ICTH 2018), 343–350.
Cooper RA et al (2002) Driving characteristics of electric-powered wheelchair users: how far, fast and often do people drive? Arch Phys Med Rehabil 83:250–255
Niniss H, Inoue T (2006) Assessment of driving skills using virtual reality: comparative survey on experts and unskilled users of electric wheelchairs. Technol Disabil 18:217–226
Mahajan H.P, 2012 “Development and validation of simulators for power wheelchair driving evaluations,” University of Pittsburgh
Marchuk N.D, Ding D, Gaukrodger S, 2007 “Development of a virtual platform for assessment and training of power wheelchair driving,” in 30th RESNA International Conference, 2007.
Mahajan HP, Dicianno BE, Cooper RA, Ding D (2013) Assessment of wheelchair driving performance in a virtual reality-based simulator. J Spinal Cord Med 6(4):322–333
Liu L, Wang J, Chen W. 2014 “A virtual simulation and driver evaluation platform for smart wheelchairs,” in Communications in Computer and Information Science, 307–318.
Majdolashrafi M, Ahmadabadi M.N, Ghazavi A, 2002 “A desktop virtual environment to train motorized wheelchair driving,” in IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man and Cybernetics
Niniss H, Inoue T. 2006 “Electric wheelchair simulator for rehabilitation of persons with motor disability,” in Sysmposium on Virtual Reality VIII
Linden MA, Whyatt C, Craig C, Kerr C (2013) Efficacy of a powered wheelchair simulator for school aged children: a randomised controlled trial. Rehabil Psychol 58(4):405–411
Carlozzia NE, Gadeb V, Rizzoc A, Tulskya DS (2015) Using virtual reality driving simulators in persons with spinal cord injury: three screen display versus head mounted display. Disabil Rehabil Assist Technol 8(2):176–180
Alshaer A, Regenbrecht H, O’Hare D (2017) Immersion factors affecting perception and behaviour in a virtual reality power wheelchair simulator. Appl Ergon 58:1–12
John N, Pop S, Day T, Ritsos P, Headleand C (2018) The implementation and validation of a virtual environment for training powered wheelchair manoueuvres. IEEE Trans Vis Comput Graph 24(5):1867–1877
De Santis A, Di Gironimo G, Marzano A, Siciliano B, Tarallo A, 2008 “A virtual-reality-based evaluation environment for wheelchair-mounted manipulators,” in Eurographics Italian Chapter Conference, 2008, pp. 1–8.
Hernandez-Ossa K, Longo B, Montenegro-Couto E, Romero-Laiseca A, Bastos-FIlho T, 2017 “Development and pilot test of a virtual reality system for electric powered wheelchair simulation,” in IEEE International Conference on Systems, 2355–2360.
Hernandez-Ossa K, Montenegro-Couto E, Longo B, Bastos-FIlho T, 2019“Virtual reality simulator for electric powered wheelchairs using a joystick,” in XXVI Brazilian Congress on Biomedical Engineering, 729–736.
Zatla H, Hadj-Abdelkader A, Morere Y, Bourhis G. 2015 “OPCM model application on a 3D simulator for powered wheelchair,” in International Conference on Virtual Rehabilitation (ICVR), 131–132.
Randria I, Abellard A, Ben Khelifa M, Abellard P, Ramanantsizehena P, 2008 “Evaluation of trajectory applied to collaborative rehabilitation for a wheelchair driving simulator,” in IFMBE Proceeedings, 1843–1846.
Onyango S.O, Hamam Y, Djouani K, Daachi B, Steyn N, 2016 “A driving behaviour model of electrical wheelchair users,” Comput. Intell. Neurosci., 1–20
Kalawsky RS (1999) VRUSE–a computerised diagnostic tool: for usability evaluation of virtual/synthetic environment systems. Appl Ergon 30:11–25
MacGillivray M, Sawatzy B, Miller W, Routhier F, Kirby L, 2017 “Goal satisfaction improves with individualized powered wheelchair skills training,” Disabil Rehabil Assist Technol, 1–4
Massengale S, Folden D, McConnell P, Stratton L, Whitehead V (2010) Effect of visual perception, visual function, cognition, and personality on power wheelchair use in adults. Assist Technol 17(2):108–121
Martins FR, Naves ELM, Morère Y, de Sá AAR (2021) Preliminary assessment of a multimodal electric-powered wheelchair simulator for training of activities of daily living. J Multimodal User Interfaces 21:1–29
Javanmardi S, Bideaux E, Trégouët J.F, Trigui R, Tattegrain H, NicouleauBourles E. 2017 “Driving style modelling for eco-driving applications,” in The 20th World congress of the international federation of automatic control, 13866–13871.
Egan E, Brennan S, Barrett J, Qiao Y, Murray N. 2016 “An evaluation of heart rate and electrodermal activity as an objective QoE evaluation method for immersive virtual reality environments,” in 8th International Conference on Quality of Multimedia Experience (QoMEX)
D. M. Gabrielli F, Schiro J, Pudlo P, Bouilland S, Thévenon A 2012 “Indicateur pour différencier les conducteurs automobiles durant des manoeuvres à basse vitesse,” in Handicap 2012 conference, 93–103.
D. Y. Carlson T 2008 “Collaborative control in human wheelchair interaction reduces the need for dexterity in precise manoeuvres,” in Robotic helpers: user interaction, interfaces and companions in assis-tive and therapy robotics”, a workshop at ACM/IEEE HRI, 59–66.
S.-T. I. Urdiales C, Peula J, Fdez-Carmona M, Barrué C, Pérez E, 2010 “A new multi-criteria optimization strategy for shared control in wheelchair assisted navigation,” Aut. Robot., 30, 2, 179–197
Li Q, Chen W, Wang J. 2011 “Dynamic shared control for human-wheelchair cooperation,” in IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation
Hershey JR, Olsen PA (2007) Approximating the Kullback Leibler divergence between Gaussian mixture models. ICASSP 4:317–320
Faria B.M, 2013“Intelligent wheelchair simulator for users’ training: cerebral palsy children’s case study,” in 8th Iberian Conference on Information Systems and Technologies, 1–6.
Kirby R.L. 2017 Wheelchair skills assessment and training. CRC Press
Borges LR, Naves ELM, Sa AAR (2021) Usability evaluation of an electric-powered wheelchair driven by eye tracking. Univers Access Inf Soc 1(1):1–20
FDA 2016 “Applying human factors and usability engineering to medical devices,”
Bertin R.J.V, Guillot A, Collet C, Vienne F, Espié S, Graf W. 2004 “Objective measurement of simulator sickness and the role of visual-vestibular conflict situations: a study with vestibular-loss (a-reflexive) subjects,” in Proceeding Neuroscience, 30.
Affanni PZA, Bernardini R, Piras A, Rinaldo R (2018) Driver’s stress detection using skin potential response signals. Measurement 122:264–274
Lanatà FBA, Valenza G, Greco A, Gentili C, Bartolozzi R, Frendo EPSF (2014) How the autonomic nervous system and driving style change with incremental stressing conditions during simulated driving. IEEE Trans Intell Transp Syst 16(3):1505–1507
Hernandez R.J, McDuff D, Benavides X, Amores J, Maes P, Picard, 2014“Autoemotive: bringing empathy to the driving experience to manage stress,” in Proceedings of the 2014 companion publication on Designing interactive system, 253–56.
Healey JA, Picard RW (2015) Detecting stress during real-world driving tasks using physiological sensors. IEEE Trans Intell Transp Syst 6(2):156–166
Subasi A. 2019“Biomedical signal analysis and its usage in healthcare,” in Biomedical Engineering and its Applications in Healthcare, S. Paul, Ed. Springer,
Cerutti S, Marchesi C. 2011, Advanced methods of biomedical signal processing. Wiley-IEEE,
WSP, 2021 “Wheelchair skills program (WSP) manual and forms,”
Kirby RL, Swuste J, Dupuis DJ, MacLeod DA, Monroe R (2002) The wheelchair skills test: a pilot study of a new outcome measure. Arch Phys Med Rehabil 83(1):10–18
Letts L.J, Dawson D. R, Gleason J. 2007 “Reliability and validity of the power-mobility community driving assessment,” Assist. Technol. Off. J. RESNA, pp. 1–8
Dawson D. R, 2006 Power-mobility indoor driving assessment manual (PIDA). Toronto-Canadá: Sunnybrook and Wonmen´s College Health Sciences Centre
Hernandez-Ossa K et al (2020) Simulation system of electric-powered wheelchairs for training purposes. Sensors 20:3565
Pithon T, Weiss T, Richir S, Klinger E, 2016 “Wheelchair simulators: a review,” Technol. Disabil., 1–7
Day T.W, Dobson W.H, Headleand C.J, John N.W, Pop S.R. 2017“Using virtual reality to experience different powered wheelchair configurations,” in 2017 International Conference on Cyberworlds (CW)
Gerling K.M, Mandryk R.L, Kalyn M.R, 2013 “Wheelchair-based game design for older adults,” in ASSETS ’13: Proceedings of the 15th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility, 1–8.
Funding
This study was financed in part by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior – Brasil (CAPES). Finance code 001.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
AARS was involved in drafting the manuscript and revising it critically for important intellectual content. YM and ELMN supervised, revised, and gave the final approval of the manuscript. All authors were fully involved in the study and preparation of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Ethics approval and consent to participate
Not applicable.
Consent for publication
Not applicable.
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing interests.
Additional information
Publisher’s note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
de Sá, A.A.R., Morère, Y. & Naves, E.L.M. Skills assessment metrics of electric powered wheelchair driving in a virtual environment: a survey. Med Biol Eng Comput 60, 323–335 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11517-022-02500-8
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11517-022-02500-8