Follow Me
Motivated by the high number of wheelchair users, the Foundation develops the Follow Me project, which allows a group of up to five electric wheelchairs to automatically follow the leader of the group, without the participation of the user (who has no cognition or physical ability to drive it).
With this project, a set of up to 5 electric wheelchairs, of different models and characteristics, for people with intellectual disability without sufficient cognition, are automated with the aim of making them able to move around in urban environments at a pedestrian speed (3km per hour) following a professional leader or volunteer.
These people require a professional or volunteer per chair in order to travel from one point to another. This circumstance limits the number of times they can enjoy walks, trips to nature or the outside daylight, etc. and is a discrimination against their peers. The project saves more than 3500 hours per year of a caregiver that can be used for a greater utility for our users.
This project is aimed at people with disabilities in a wheelchair without the necessary cognition to drive it, their families and the entities that support them and their professionals and volunteers.
It has managed to add an application to any wheelchair model, so that it can follow a group leader automatically, acting on the chair’s joystick, so that a single person can move up to 5 wheelchair users simultaneously, with the aim of offering them a better quality of life (walks, outings, etc.).
Additional Information
This project, carried out with the collaboration of the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, Ramón Llull University and “la Caixa” Foundation, has been awarded the 1st Innovation Award for Social Transformation of the “la Caixa” Foundation among of the 900 projects presented.
In collaboration with:
