# NOVA Mobility Assistive System: Developed and Remotely Controlled with IOPT-Tools
## 1 Introduction  
According to the World Health Organization (WHO) [1], about 15% of the world population presents some form of disability, including 2-4% suffering from a severe disability such as quadriplegia, depression, or blindness [2]. This percentage has been increasing due to the rapid spread of chronic diseases, such as heart disease and stroke, cancer, and diabetes; as well as due to the increase of average life expectancy in developed countries. In general, these people have difficulties that are associated with their physical and psychological condition, including discrimination characterized by fewer educational and professional opportunities, dependence, and restricted participation in social activities due to their little autonomy and mobility, among others [3]. As such, people with disabilitiesrely on health care and life support systems to overcome these difficulties, and to become more active and part of the community. For that, assistive technologies and devices [4] have been proposed to help these people in their daily lives, including 75 million people that, according to WHO, need to use a wheelchair [5]. Power Wheelchairs (PWs) and scooters are used by people with physical disabilities, as a way to improve their autonomy. In the market, it is possible to find PWs with different functionalities, aiming to meet the different customer needs. For example, some users cannot handle the traditional joystick to control their PW and need to use other control mechanisms, such as head or chin joysticks. Beyond the users' capabilities, the environment in which the wheelchair is used influences on how it is operated. Although PW users benefit from more mobility, their accessibility is not always guaranteed, it depends on the obstacles and barriers present in the cities [6; 7], ranging from public accommodations and transport systems to public roads and sidewalks. It is common for people in wheelchairs to move on the side of the road as a way to get around obstacles. Furthermore, accidents involving PW and scooters have been reported in several countries [8; 9], namely, PW that fall on their side, or users who fall to the floor sometimes due to the difference in ground level, and also due to the collision with cars and buses at junctions and intersections. A study in the USA reported that the mortality rate of pedestrians in wheelchairs is 36% higher than the overall pedestrians, with about half of accidents occurring at intersections and 38.7% in places without traffic control devices [10]. Several authors defend the update from PWs to Smart Wheelchairs (SWs) to overcome some of these problems [11; 12]. SWs are wheelchairs equipped with embedded systems capable of acquiring and processing data from sensors that are available in the wheelchair. The sensors data, which can be used to constrain the operation and behavior of the SW, provide information about the user, the SW, and the environment. In the same way, smart city solutions have been contributing to support mobility and accessibility in cities [13; 14; 15]. In this context, several authors propose the use of crowdsourcing solutions, in which users and non-users of wheelchairs provide data about urban and architectural features of cities [16; 17; 18]. However, these proposals have some limitations. Firstly, the existing SWs are very expensive and they often need to be adapted to its user singular needs, which further increases the costs. On the other hand, the information shared by crowdsourcing may not be enough, and it can quickly become obsolete. The existence of complementary systems, such as those that support the communication between road infrastructure elements and vehicles [19; 20; 21], may have a key role to play in the future, as a way of preventing accidents that involve wheelchairs and scooters and assisting the mobility of its users.