Deans' stroke musings: Aging with Autonomy: Sensor-Based Smart Wheelchairs for Independent Living

Changing stroke rehab and research worldwide now.Time is Brain! trillions and trillions of neurons that DIE each day because there are NO effective hyperacute therapies besides tPA(only 12% effective). I have 523 posts on hyperacute therapy, enough for researchers to spend decades proving them out. These are my personal ideas and blog on stroke rehabilitation and stroke research. Do not attempt any of these without checking with your medical provider. Unless you join me in agitating, when you need these therapies they won't be there.

What this blog is for:

My blog is not to help survivors recover, it is to have the 10 million yearly stroke survivors light fires underneath their doctors, stroke hospitals and stroke researchers to get stroke solved. 100% recovery. The stroke medical world is completely failing at that goal, they don't even have it as a goal. Shortly after getting out of the hospital and getting NO information on the process or protocols of stroke rehabilitation and recovery I started searching on the internet and found that no other survivor received useful information. This is an attempt to cover all stroke rehabilitation information that should be readily available to survivors so they can talk with informed knowledge to their medical staff. It lays out what needs to be done to get stroke survivors closer to 100% recovery. It's quite disgusting that this information is not available from every stroke association and doctors group.

Monday, August 10, 2026

Aging with Autonomy: Sensor-Based Smart Wheelchairs for Independent Living

In the hospital you'll want lever powered wheelchairs so you'll force your arms to recover at the same rate as your legs when you are forced to walk.

lever wheelchair (16 posts to May 2016)

Did see a smart wheelchair in the airport although when two approached each other, both shut down.

Aging with Autonomy: Sensor-Based SmartWheelchairs for Independent Living

Hager Khalil1, Jesslyin Dunn2, Diego Felipe Paez Granados3, Nigel Lovell4, Richard Robin Fletcher5,6, and Mohamed Elgendi1,7,* 1Department of Biomedical Engineering and Biotechnology, Khalifa University, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates 2Department of Biomedical Engineering, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, United States of America 3Department of Health Sciences and Technology, ETH Z¨urich, Gloriastrasse 37/39, 8092 Z¨urich, Switzerland 4Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering, University of New South Wales, Sydney NSW 2052, Australia 5Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA 6Recovery Research Institute, Center for Addiction Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, 151 Merrimac St. 4th Floor, Boston, MA, 02114, USA 7Healthcare Engineering Innovation Group (HEIG), Khalifa University, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates *Corresponding author: mohamed.elgendi@ku.ac.ae

ABSTRACT

Smart wheelchairs enhance mobility and independence for individuals with physical impairments, including older adults. However, challenges remain in sensor reliability, affordability, and real-world applicability. This systematic review (PROSPERO ID: CRD420250642191) analyzed 57 studies (Jan 2016–Jan 2026) from IEEE Xplore, Scopus, PubMed, Embase, and ScienceDirect, following PRISMA guidelines. We examined control modalities (e.g., brain–computer interfaces, eye tracking, voice, gesture, and multimodal), sensor integration (e.g., cameras, LiDAR, ultrasonic, IMU, and EEG), computational platforms, and safety mechanisms. Most studies (45.6%) focused on non-autonomous designs, with fewer on semi- (45.6%) or fully autonomous (8.8%) systems. While healthy participants were commonly used for validation, few studies included individuals with mobility impairments. Evidence indicates smart wheelchairs can reduce user effort, improve safety, and support daily activities, yet adoption is limited by sensor fragility, high costs, lack of standardization, and limited long-term evaluation. Future research should focus on developing robust, interoperable sensors; integrating smart homes and tele-rehabilitation; conducting inclusive testing; fostering cross-disciplinary collaboration; and securing regulatory support to enable scalable, user-centered mobility solutions.