Page 58 - Mobility Management, July/August 2021

LUCI In The Real World
LUCI achieves an incredible level of safety for the user in both collision avoidance and drop-off protection. However, most wheelchair riders aren’t actively trying to drive off curbs and run into things on purpose like we do in the lab. Therefore, a large part of our testing is done in real-life situations just trying to drive around.
Real world testing is done in three main test courses: inside our mock home, outside the home in the community around our offices, and while entering/exiting accessible vehicles to go places for testing. In these tests, the wheelchair is driven at medium speeds typical of our users (~3.5 mph), standard reaction times, with standard back and foot zone configurations and factory default RNET settings. Because safety (collision and drop-off) testing is broken out into separate tests, this group of tests is looking for areas that LUCI causes you to use override when you wouldn’t expect it to (a false positive). Because...
If LUCI isn’t sure if a situation is safe, it will slow or stop the wheelchair out of an abundance of caution.
Don’t worry though, that is what override is for. If you disagree with LUCI you win and it’s ok to use override. At the same time, it’s our goal to make LUCI drive so well that you forget the override button exists!
LUCI currently has an approximately 4% false-positive rate that would cause an experienced user to have to use override when there is not a valid obstacle.
THE PROCEDURE
Inside the home testing includes driving down narrow hallways, through doorways at various angles, entering and exiting an elevator, pulling up to a bed, table and toilet, varying lighting conditions and flooring patterns, and slowing to avoid collisions with objects that pass across the wheelchair’s path.