Wheelchair simulators: A review

Piloting a manual wheelchair is an important necessity for the everyday life and social activities of people with physical and sometimes cognitive disabilities. It requires complex capacities and may become tiring and stressful during indoor as well as outdoor activities. The enactment of laws relating to accessibility and discrimination, all around the world, has motivated researchers to verify building standards and to improve wheelchair ergonomics. Nowadays, the potential of Virtual Reality (VR) in training and daily living activities simulation is already well-known. The aim of this paper is to provide an updated review which explores various VR-based systems and studies related to wheelchair simulators. In particular, we consider wheelchair simulator characteristics according to a user centred view driven by perception and interaction, and wheelchair behavioral simulation. We continue with a description of wheelchair simulator application fields as well as a review of the various objectives for carrying out wheelchair simulation studies.