Tokyo (SCCIJ) – Traveling through airports for passengers with reduced mobility might soon become much easier and simpler. A Swiss start-up has developed an autonomous electric wheelchair for this purpose.
The Swiss airport wheelchair can drive autonomously without any manual assistance (© DAAV).
Technical challenge
Over 43 million passengers traveled through Swiss airports in 2022 on their way to or from holidays or business meetings. For people with restricted mobility due to a disability or age, such trips present a great challenge.
Specialized services exist to assist such passengers. They are offered help with check-in, passport, customs, and security control as well as with receiving their luggage.
However, aviation companies spend a significant amount of money and manpower to provide these services. Still, they are all too often unsatisfactory for the passengers and costly for the companies and the airports.
High maneuverability
Now, DAAV, a spin-off from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), has developed an autonomous electric wheelchair to make things easier for people with reduced mobility, specifically for places like airports.
Their novel electric wheelchair provides the highest level of maneuverability for users, meaning that passengers can move in any direction they desire without changing course. They can simply move forwards, backward, sideways, turn on the spot, or any combination of these movements. This is helpful for places with little space to maneuver, such as when queuing at check-in.
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Autonomous driving
The unique feature of the DAAV wheelchair is its autonomous driving system. The wheelchair moves autonomously on the most efficient route to the desired destination. With the help of a cutting-edge AI-powered algorithm, it enables the users of the wheelchair to drive either manually or completely automated. In implementing the wheelchairs at an airport, the entire service for passengers with reduced mobility could be managed automatically without any manual assistance.
Passengers in need of mobility assistance can easily get on a unit, scan their boarding pass at an integrated reader, and are driven to the gate they are supposed to go to efficiently and independently thanks to the automated driving system. After delivering a passenger to the specific gate, the wheelchair will drive itself back to the charging area and wait for the next user.
Recently, the DAAV team demonstrated their mobility solution in check-in area 2 of Zurich airport. The goal is to bring DAAV to market by the end of 2023 and to improve the service for passengers with reduced mobility in airports all over the world.
Text: © Swisstech (editing by SCCIJ)
