Hi all, I write for your opinions/suggestions. I need to implement a semi-autonomous navigation system for an electrical wheelchair. This means that the wheelchair should be able to perform obstacle avoidance by itself but the movement orientation is controlled (teleoperated) by an user via a continuous control signal. By default the wheelchair is going forward. No localization is needed at this stage. The wheelchair is equipped by 10 ultrasonic sensors all around and 1 or 2 Kinect in the front.

In your opinion what is the best way to implement such a semi-autonomous behavior? I was thinking to use move_base package to continuously give orientation goals according to the user input signal, but I don’t know if this takes into account possible obstacles and thus, if it implements obstacle avoidances.

What do you think? Is it a smart approach?

Thanks everybody for the feedback!