CN112203626A

CN112203626A - Electric wheelchair charging navigation method and system

Info

Publication number: CN112203626A
Application number: CN201780098038.9A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 刘伟荣; 李家鑫; 焦寅; 闫励
Original assignee: Sichuan Golden Ridge Intelligence Science and Technology Co Ltd
Current assignee: Sichuan Golden Ridge Intelligence Science and Technology Co Ltd
Priority date: 2017-12-29
Filing date: 2017-12-29
Publication date: 2021-01-08
Also published as: WO2019127353A1

Abstract

A method and a system for electric wheelchair charging navigation are provided, wherein the method comprises the following steps: acquiring the residual capacity of the electric wheelchair (310), and acquiring the current position of the electric wheelchair when the residual capacity is smaller than a set threshold value (320); searching for a charging facility (330) within a range of a current location of the electric wheelchair; acquiring the searched charging facility location (340); screening the searched charging facilities (350); sending the screened charging facilities to a wheelchair and/or a user terminal for selection by a user (360); determining navigation information (370) based on the current location of the wheelchair and the user-selected location of the charging facility, wherein the navigation information includes one or more navigation paths; and sending the navigation information to the wheelchair and/or the user terminal to prompt the user (380).

Description

Electric wheelchair charging navigation method and system

Technical Field

The present application relates to a charging navigation method and system, and more particularly, to a charging navigation method and system for an electric wheelchair.

Background

Along with the progress of science and technology, the intellectualization of the electric wheelchair is continuously strengthened, such as climbing stairs, automatic control and the like. Compare traditional manual wheelchair, electronic wheelchair can provide more convenient trip for old person or physical disabilities, can reach labour saving and time saving's effect. It is expected that electric wheelchairs will become more and more popular in future life, however, attention must be paid to how to provide charging services for electric wheelchairs. Therefore, it is necessary to provide a method and a system for electric wheelchair charging navigation based on future electric wheelchair charging services.

Disclosure of Invention

According to one aspect of the application, an electric wheelchair charging navigation method is provided. The method can comprise the following steps: acquiring the residual capacity of the electric wheelchair, and when the residual capacity is smaller than a set threshold value, executing the following steps: acquiring the current position of the electric wheelchair; searching for a charging facility within a certain range of the current position of the electric wheelchair; acquiring the searched position of the charging facility; screening the searched charging facilities; sending the screened charging facilities to the wheelchair and/or a user terminal for selection by a user; determining navigation information according to the current position of the wheelchair and the position of a charging facility selected by a user, wherein the navigation information comprises one or more navigation paths; and sending the navigation information to the wheelchair and/or a user terminal to prompt a user.

In some embodiments, the step of screening the searched charging facilities further comprises: determining the travelable distance of the electric wheelchair according to the residual electric quantity of the electric wheelchair; and screening the charging facilities according to the travelable distance.

In some embodiments, the step of screening the searched charging facilities comprises: acquiring the number of available charging interfaces of the searched charging facility; and screening the charging facilities according to the number of the available charging interfaces.

In some embodiments, the step of determining navigation information based on the current location of the wheelchair and the location of the user-selected charging facility comprises: if the charging facility selected by the user is located indoors, the navigation information comprises one or more of the number of floors on which the charging facility is located, available elevators arriving at the charging facility, estimated arrival time and estimated charging time; and if the user-selected charging facility is located outdoors, the navigation information includes one or more of non-motorway information, road obstacle information, predicted arrival time, predicted charging time.

According to another aspect of the application, an electric wheelchair charging navigation device is provided. The apparatus includes one or more processors. The processor may be configured to perform the steps of: acquiring the residual capacity of the electric wheelchair, and when the residual capacity is smaller than a set threshold value, executing the following steps: acquiring the current position of the electric wheelchair; searching for a charging facility within a certain range of the current position of the electric wheelchair; acquiring the searched position of the charging facility; screening the searched charging facilities; sending the screened charging facilities to the wheelchair and/or a user terminal for selection by a user; determining navigation information according to the current position of the wheelchair and the position of a charging facility selected by a user, wherein the navigation information comprises one or more navigation paths; and sending the navigation information to the wheelchair and/or a user terminal to prompt a user.

According to another aspect of the present application, an electric wheelchair charging navigation system is provided. The system comprises: the device comprises an electric quantity detection module, an information acquisition module, a search module, a screening module, an information sending module, a navigation information determination module and a navigation information prompt module. The electric quantity detection module is used for obtaining the residual electric quantity of the electric wheelchair and comparing the residual electric quantity with a set threshold value. The information acquisition module is used for acquiring the current position of the electric wheelchair; the searching module is used for searching for charging facilities within a certain range from the current position; the screening module is used for screening the searched charging facilities; the information sending module is used for sending the screened charging facilities to the wheelchair and/or the user terminal for selection by a user; the navigation information determining module is used for determining navigation information according to the current position of the wheelchair and the position of the charging facility selected by the user, wherein the navigation information comprises one or more navigation paths; and the navigation information prompting module is used for sending the navigation information to the wheelchair and/or the user terminal to prompt the user.

According to another aspect of the present application, a computer-readable storage medium is provided, wherein the storage medium stores one or more computer instructions. When the computer instructions are executed, the following steps may be performed: acquiring the residual capacity of the electric wheelchair, and when the residual capacity is smaller than a set threshold value, executing the following steps: acquiring the current position of the electric wheelchair; searching for a charging facility within a certain range of the current position of the electric wheelchair; acquiring the searched position of the charging facility; screening the searched charging facilities; sending the screened charging facilities to the wheelchair and/or a user terminal for selection by a user; determining navigation information according to the current position of the wheelchair and the position of a charging facility selected by a user, wherein the navigation information comprises one or more navigation paths; and sending the navigation information to the wheelchair and/or a user terminal to prompt a user.

Additional features of the present application will be set forth in part in the description which follows. Additional features of some aspects of the present application will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art in view of the following description and accompanying drawings, or in view of the production or operation of the embodiments. The features of the present disclosure may be realized and attained by practice or use of the methods, instrumentalities and combinations of the various aspects of the particular embodiments described below.

Drawings

The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of the disclosure, and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this disclosure. The illustrative embodiments and their description in this application are intended to be illustrative of the application and are not to be construed as limiting the application.

Fig. 1 is an exemplary schematic diagram of an electric wheelchair charging navigation system provided according to an embodiment of the invention.

Fig. 2 is an exemplary block diagram of a processor provided in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 3 is an exemplary flowchart of a method for charging and navigating an electric wheelchair, according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

As used in this specification and the appended claims, the terms "a," "an," "the," and/or "the" are not intended to be inclusive in the singular, but rather are intended to be inclusive in the plural, unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. In general, the terms "comprises" and "comprising" merely indicate that steps and elements are included which are explicitly identified, that the steps and elements do not form an exclusive list, and that a method or apparatus may include other steps or elements. The term "based on" is "based, at least in part, on". The term "one embodiment" means "at least one embodiment"; the term "another embodiment" means "at least one additional embodiment". Relevant definitions for other terms will be given in the following description.

Although various references are made herein to certain modules in a system according to embodiments of the present application, any number of different modules may be used and run in a security system. These modules are merely illustrative, and different aspects of the systems and methods may use different modules.

Flow charts are used herein to illustrate operations performed by systems according to embodiments of the present application. It should be understood that the preceding or following operations are not necessarily performed in the exact order in which they are performed. Rather, various steps may be processed in reverse order or simultaneously. Meanwhile, other operations may be added to the processes, or a certain step or several steps of operations may be removed from the processes.

Fig. 1 is an exemplary schematic diagram of an electric wheelchair charging navigation system 100 provided in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in fig. 1, the system 100 may be an online platform that may include a server 110, a network 120, an electric wheelchair 130, a storage medium 140, a user terminal 150, a charging facility 160, and the like. Further, the server 110 also includes one or more processors 112.

In some embodiments, the server 110 may be a single server, or may be a server cluster or a computer cluster composed of a plurality of servers. The cluster may be centralized or distributed. In some embodiments, the server 110 may be a local server or a remote server. For example, the server 110 may access information or data stored in the electric wheelchair 130, the storage medium 140, the user terminal 150, and the charging facility 160 through the network 120. In some embodiments, the server 110 may also be a cloud server deployed on a cloud platform. The cloud platform may include, but is not limited to, public cloud, private cloud, hybrid cloud, community cloud, and the like.

In some embodiments, the server 110 may also include one or more processors 112. The processor 112 may be used to process information or data related to the charge navigation function disclosed herein. For example, the processor 112 may obtain the remaining power of the electric wheelchair 130, the current location of the electric wheelchair 130, and determine relevant navigation information, etc. In some embodiments, the processor 112 may include one or more processors (e.g., a single-core processor or a multi-core processor). Alternatively, the processor 112 may include, but is not limited to, a Central Processing Unit (CPU), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), an application specific instruction set processor (ASIP), an image processor (GPU), a Physical Processor (PPU), a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), a programmable gate array (FPGA), a programmable logic circuit (PLD), a processor, a microprocessor, a controller, a microcontroller, and the like.

It should be understood to those skilled in the art that the processor 112 may be a stand-alone device or may be integrated with other components of the charging navigation system 100, such as the electric wheelchair 130, the user terminal 150, and/or the charging facility 160.

The network 120 may be used to enable information or data exchange between various components (e.g., the electric wheelchair 130, the charging arrangement 160, etc.) in the system 100. For example, the server 110 can obtain a request to charge the electric wheelchair 130 via the network 120. The network 120 may be any type of wired or wireless network. For example, typical networks include a Local Area Network (LAN), a Wide Area Network (WAN), a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN), a wireless personal area Network (ZigBee), Bluetooth (Bluetooth), a Near Field Communication (NFC) Network, a Cellular Network (Cellular Network), and the like.

The electric wheelchair 130 may be used as a means for riding instead of walking for the elderly or the disabled. The electric wheelchair 130 is formed by stacking a high-performance power driving device, an intelligent operating device, a battery and other parts on the basis of a traditional manual wheelchair for upgrading and modification. For example, a typical power drive may include an electric motor. Typical smart manipulators may include rocker-type manipulators, voice command manipulators, gesture command manipulators, and the like. Typical batteries may include lithium batteries, solar batteries, lead-acid batteries, graphene batteries, and the like. The specific structure of the electric wheelchair is known to those skilled in the art and will not be described herein.

Storage medium 140 may be used to store data and/or instructions. For example, the storage medium 140 may store data obtained from the electric wheelchair 130 and/or the charging facility 160. In some embodiments, the storage medium 140 may also store one or more computer instructions. The charge navigation methods or steps disclosed herein may be implemented when the instructions are executed by one or more processors. In some embodiments, the storage medium 140 includes volatile memory and/or non-volatile memory. Typical volatile memories include Random Access Memory (RAM), Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), Static Random Access Memory (SRAM), and the like. Typical non-volatile memories include Read Only Memory (ROM), Flash memory (Flash), optical disks, floppy disks, mechanical hard disks, and the like. In some embodiments, the storage medium 140 may be cloud storage deployed on a cloud platform. For example, the cloud platform includes public clouds, private clouds, hybrid clouds, community clouds, and the like.

In some embodiments, the user terminal 150 may include a mobile terminal 150-1, a tablet computer 150-2, a laptop computer 150-3, an electric wheelchair-mounted device 150-4, and the like. In some embodiments, the mobile terminal 150-1 may include, but is not limited to, a smartphone, a wearable device, a Virtual Reality (VR) device, an Augmented Reality (AR) device, and the like. In some embodiments, the wearable device includes, but is not limited to, a smart bracelet, a smart foot ring, smart glasses, a smart helmet, a smart backpack, and the like. In some embodiments, the VR and/or AR device may include VR helmets, VR glasses, AR helmets, AR glasses, and the like. For example, typical commercially available VR and/or AR devices include Google Glass, Oculus Rift, Hololens, Gear VR, and the like. In some embodiments, the user terminal 150 may be communicatively coupled to other components of the system 100 via a network 120. For example, the user may view the charging navigation information determined by the server 110 through the user terminal 150 (e.g., an application program pre-installed on the terminal).

The charging facility 160 may include an indoor charging station and/or an outdoor charging station. In some embodiments, the charging station includes one or more charging interfaces through which the electric wheelchair 130 can be charged. In some embodiments, the charging facility 160 may provide one or more standard charging interfaces (e.g., dc charging or ac charging).

Fig. 2 is an exemplary block diagram of the processor 112 provided according to the present embodiment of the invention. The processor 112 includes a power detection module 210, an information acquisition module 220, a search module 230, a filtering module 240, a navigation information determination module 250, a navigation information prompt module 260, and an information transmission module 270. It should be understood to those skilled in the art that each module may include one or more hardware circuits that may be used to execute the instructions stored in the storage medium 140 to implement the following functions. In some embodiments, the various modules may also include one or more combinations of hardware circuitry and storage media. In still other embodiments, the modules may also be functional modules containing computer instructions that implement the following functions.

The power detection module 210 can obtain the remaining power of the electric wheelchair 130. In some embodiments, the charge detection module 210 may include one or more charge sensors. The electric quantity sensor can detect the change of the electric quantity of the battery in the electric wheelchair 310 and report the residual electric quantity data of the battery in real time. Further, the power detecting module 210 can obtain the remaining power of the electric wheelchair 130. The one or more charge sensors may include, but are not limited to, a direct current charge sensor, an alternating current charge sensor, and/or an alternating frequency charge sensor. Typical dc power sensors may include shunts, resistive dividers, and the like. Typical ac power sensors may include electromagnetic voltage transformers, capacitive voltage transformers, and/or electromagnetic current transformers, among others. Typical ac frequency electrical quantity sensors may include hall voltage sensors, rogowski coils, and/or variable frequency power sensors, among others.

In some embodiments, the power detection module 210 may be configured to compare the remaining power with a set power threshold. For example, when the remaining power of the electric wheelchair 130 is less than the set power threshold, the power detection module 210 may generate an alarm signal and send the alarm signal to the information acquisition module 220 for further processing. The alarm signal may comprise a light, sound, electrical, etc. signal. In some embodiments, the set power threshold may be any amount of power, such as 3Ah, 2Ah, 1Ah, etc. The set charge threshold may also be any percentage of the rated capacity of the battery, such as 5%, 10%, 15%, etc.

The information acquisition module 220 may acquire information and/or data related to the electric wheelchair 130 and the charging facility 160. For example, when the remaining power of the electric wheelchair 130 is less than a set threshold, the information module 220 may obtain an alarm signal generated by the power detection module 210. For another example, the information acquisition module 220 may obtain the current location of the electric wheelchair 130. For another example, the information acquisition module 220 may acquire the position information of the charging facility 160, the available charging interface information, and the like. In some embodiments, the information acquisition module 220 may be in direct or indirect communication with the search module 230, the filtering module 240, the navigation information determination module 250, the navigation information prompting module 240, and the information sending module 270.

The search module 230 may search for charging facilities within a certain range from the current location of the electric wheelchair 130. For example, when the information acquisition module 220 receives an alarm signal, the search module searches for charging facilities within a certain range from the current location of the wheelchair 130. In some embodiments, the search range may be a preset range, such as 100 meters, 200 meters, 300 meters, and so on. In some embodiments, the search range may be a range adaptively set according to a remaining power amount. For example, when the remaining power is less than 10%, the search module may calculate a distance to be traveled by the electric wheelchair 130, and search for a charging facility within the distance to be traveled.

The screening module 240 may screen the searched charging facilities according to a certain screening method. In some embodiments, the screening module 240 may determine the distance the electric wheelchair can travel based on the remaining capacity of the electric wheelchair 130, and then screen out the charging facilities within the range of the distance that can travel. In some embodiments, the screening module 240 may obtain the number of available charging interfaces of the searched charging facility, and screen the charging facility according to the number of available charging interfaces. Optionally, the screening module 240 may obtain the number of available interfaces of the charging facility from the information obtaining module 220. In some embodiments, the screening module 240 may sort the screened charging facilities according to a certain rule (e.g., in descending order of distance to empty, or in descending order of number of available interfaces).

In some embodiments, the screening module 240 may send the screened charging facilities to the electric wheelchair 130 and/or the user terminal 150 through the information sending module 270 for selection. For example, the user may select the nearest charging facility through a display device (not shown) provided on the electric wheelchair 130 and/or the user terminal 150. For another example, the user may select a charging facility with a short distance and a large available charging interface through a display device (not shown) disposed on the electric wheelchair 130 and/or the user terminal 150. Further, the information sending module 270 may also send the charging facility information selected by the user to the navigation information determining module 270 for further processing.

The navigation information determination module 250 may determine navigation information according to the current location of the electric wheelchair 130 and the location of the charging facility selected by the user. The navigation information may include one or more navigation paths. In some embodiments, the navigation information determination module 250 may also determine corresponding navigation information according to the kind of charging facility selected by the user to prompt the user. The charging facility may include an indoor charging facility and an outdoor charging facility. For example, when the charging facility selected by the user is an indoor charging facility, the navigation information determined by the navigation information determining module 250 may include, but is not limited to, the number of floors where the charging facility is located, available elevators arriving at the charging facility, an estimated arrival time, and an estimated charging time. For another example, when the charging facility selected by the user is an outdoor charging facility, the navigation information determined by the navigation information determining module 250 may include, but is not limited to, non-motor lane information, road obstacle information, expected arrival time, and expected charging time.

The navigation information prompting module 260 may transmit the determined navigation information to the wheelchair 130 and/or the user terminal 150 to prompt the user. Specifically, the navigation information prompting module 260 may obtain the navigation information from the navigation information determination module 250 and send the navigation information to the wheelchair 130 and/or the user terminal 150. In some embodiments, the navigation information prompt module 260 may also transmit the navigation information to the wheelchair 130 and/or the user terminal 150 in the form of a voice signal. Further, the user navigates according to the navigation voice.

It should be understood that the system shown in fig. 1 and 2 may be implemented in a variety of ways. For example, in some embodiments, the system may be implemented in hardware, software, or a combination of software and hardware. Wherein the hardware portion may be implemented using dedicated logic; the software portions may be stored in a memory for execution by a suitable instruction execution system, such as a microprocessor or specially designed hardware. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the methods and systems described above may be implemented using computer executable instructions and/or embodied in processor control code, such code being provided, for example, on a carrier medium such as a diskette, CD-or DVD-ROM, a programmable memory such as read-only memory (firmware), or a data carrier such as an optical or electronic signal carrier. The system and its modules of the present application may be implemented not only by hardware circuits such as very large scale integrated circuits or gate arrays, semiconductors such as logic chips, transistors, or programmable hardware devices such as field programmable gate arrays, programmable logic devices, etc., but also by software executed by various types of processors, for example, or by a combination of the above hardware circuits and software (e.g., firmware).

Fig. 3 is an exemplary flowchart of a method for charging and navigating an electric wheelchair, according to an embodiment of the present invention. It should be noted that the steps illustrated in the flowchart of fig. 3 may be performed in a computer system such as a set of computer-executable instructions and that, although a logical order is illustrated in the flowchart, in some cases, the steps illustrated or described may be performed in an order different than presented herein. For example, the method and/or steps 300 shown in fig. 3 may be performed by one or more processors (e.g., server 110 or processor 112) in the electric wheelchair charging navigation system 100. The one or more processors may perform the corresponding methods and/or steps according to a set of instructions stored in a computer-readable storage medium.

At 310, the remaining power of the electric wheelchair 130 is obtained. In some embodiments, the remaining power of the electric wheelchair 130 may be obtained by a power detection module 210 (shown in fig. 2). The charge detection module 210 may include one or more charge sensors. The electric quantity sensor can detect the change of the electric quantity of the battery in the electric wheelchair 310 and report the residual electric quantity data of the battery in real time.

In some embodiments, the one or more electrical quantity sensors may include, but are not limited to, a direct current electrical quantity sensor, an alternating current electrical quantity sensor, and/or an alternating frequency electrical quantity sensor. Typical dc power sensors may include shunts, resistive dividers, and the like. Typical ac power sensors may include electromagnetic voltage transformers, capacitive voltage transformers, and/or electromagnetic current transformers, among others. Typical ac frequency electrical quantity sensors may include hall voltage sensors, rogowski coils, and/or variable frequency power sensors, among others.

In some embodiments, when the remaining power of the electric wheelchair 130 is less than the set power threshold, the electric wheelchair 130 may directly or indirectly issue a charging request to the charging navigation system 100. For example, when the remaining battery capacity is less than the set threshold, the electric wheelchair 130 may send an alarm signal, and one or more processors (such as the information acquisition module 220, the search module 230, the filtering module 240, the navigation information determination module 250, and/or the navigation information prompt module 260) in the charging navigation system 100 receive the alarm signal and further determine the charging navigation information. For another example, according to the alarm signal, the user may also send a charging request through the user terminal 150, and the charging navigation system 100 further processes the charging request to determine the charging navigation information.

In some embodiments, the alarm signal may comprise an optical, acoustic, electrical, etc. signal. In some embodiments, the set power threshold may be any amount of power, such as 3Ah, 2Ah, 1Ah, etc. The set charge threshold may also be any percentage of the rated capacity of the battery, such as 5%, 10%, 15%, etc.

At 320, a current location of the electric wheelchair 130 is obtained. Specifically, when the acquired remaining power is less than a set threshold, the current position of the electric wheelchair 130 is acquired. In some embodiments, the current location of the electric wheelchair 130 may be obtained by the information obtaining module 220. It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the current location of the powered wheelchair 130 may be obtained through one or more positioning techniques. For example, the positioning technology may include a Global Positioning System (GPS), a global navigation satellite system (GLONASS), a COMPASS navigation system (COMPASS), a galileo positioning system, a quasi-celestial satellite system (QZSS), and the like.

At 330, a search is made for charging facilities within a certain range of the current location of the electric wheelchair 130. In some embodiments, the search module 230 (shown in fig. 2) may search for charging facilities within a certain range from the current location of the electric wheelchair 130. In some embodiments, the search range may be a preset range, such as 100 meters, 200 meters, 300 meters, and so on. In some embodiments, the search range may be a range adaptively set according to a remaining power amount. For example, when the remaining power is less than 10%, the search module may calculate a distance to be traveled by the electric wheelchair 130, and search for a charging facility within the distance to be traveled.

At 340, the searched charging facility location is obtained. In some embodiments, the location information of the charging setting may be obtained by the information obtaining module 220.

At 350, the searched charging facilities are filtered. In some embodiments, the searched charging facilities may be filtered by the filtering module 240 (shown in fig. 2) according to a certain filtering method. In 350, the distance to be traveled of the electric wheelchair 130 can be determined according to the remaining capacity of the electric wheelchair, and then charging facilities within the range of the distance to be traveled can be screened out. For another example, the searched number of available charging interfaces of the charging facility may be obtained, and the charging facility may be screened according to the number of available charging interfaces. Alternatively, the number of available interfaces of the charging facility may be obtained from the information acquisition module 220. In some embodiments, the screened charging facilities may be sorted according to a certain rule (e.g., in descending order of distance to empty, or in descending order of number of available interfaces).

At 360, the screened charging facilities are sent to the wheelchair 130 and/or user terminal 150 for selection by the user. The user may select the nearest charging facility through a display device (not shown) provided on the electric wheelchair 130 and/or the user terminal 150. For another example, the user may select a charging facility with a short distance and a large available charging interface through a display device (not shown) disposed on the electric wheelchair 130 and/or the user terminal 150.

At 370, navigation information is determined based on the current location of the wheelchair 130 and the charging facility location selected by the user. The navigation information includes at least one or more navigation paths. In some embodiments, one or more navigation paths may be planned by the navigation information determination module 250 (shown in fig. 2) based on the location of the wheelchair 130 and the selected charging facility location. For example, step 370 may determine the navigation path based on historical navigation information of the user. As another example, the navigation path is determined according to a user's preference.

In some embodiments, step 370 may also determine corresponding navigation information to prompt the user according to the category of the charging facility. The charging facility may include an indoor charging facility and an outdoor charging facility. For example, when the charging facility selected by the user is an indoor charging facility, the navigation information may include, but is not limited to, the number of floors where the charging facility is located, available elevators arriving at the charging facility, estimated arrival time, and estimated charging time. For another example, when the charging facility selected by the user is an outdoor charging facility, the navigation information may include, but is not limited to, non-motor lane information, road obstacle information, expected arrival time, and expected charging time. In this way, the user can select an appropriate navigation path according to the personalized navigation information.

At 380, the navigation information is sent to the wheelchair 130 and/or user terminal 150 to prompt the user. In some embodiments, the navigation information may be transmitted to the wheelchair 130 and/or the user terminal 150 in the form of voice signals. Further, the user navigates according to the navigation voice.

Having thus described the basic concept, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the foregoing disclosure is by way of example only, and is not intended to limit the present application. Various modifications, improvements and adaptations to the present application may occur to those skilled in the art, although not explicitly described herein. Such modifications, improvements and adaptations are proposed in the present application and thus fall within the spirit and scope of the exemplary embodiments of the present application.

Also, this application uses specific language to describe embodiments of the application. Reference throughout this specification to "one embodiment," "an embodiment," and/or "some embodiments" means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with at least one embodiment of the present application is included in at least one embodiment of the present application. Therefore, it is emphasized and should be appreciated that two or more references to "an embodiment" or "one embodiment" or "an alternative embodiment" in various places throughout this specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment. Furthermore, some features, structures, or characteristics of one or more embodiments of the present application may be combined as appropriate.

Moreover, those skilled in the art will appreciate that aspects of the present application may be illustrated and described in terms of several patentable species or situations, including any new and useful combination of processes, machines, manufacture, or materials, or any new and useful improvement thereon. Accordingly, various aspects of the present application may be embodied entirely in hardware, entirely in software (including firmware, resident software, micro-code, etc.) or in a combination of hardware and software. The above hardware or software may be referred to as "data block," module, "" engine, "" unit, "" component, "or" system. Furthermore, aspects of the present application may be represented as a computer product, including computer readable program code, embodied in one or more computer readable media.

Computer program code required for the operation of various portions of the present application may be written in any one or more programming languages, including an object oriented programming language such as Java, Scala, Smalltalk, Eiffel, JADE, Emerald, C + +, C #, VB.NET, Python, and the like, a conventional programming language such as C, Visual Basic, Fortran 2003, Perl, COBOL 2002, PHP, ABAP, a dynamic programming language such as Python, Ruby, and Groovy, or other programming languages, and the like. The program code may execute entirely on the user's computer, partly on the user's computer, as a stand-alone software package, partly on the user's computer and partly on a remote computer or entirely on the remote computer or server. In the latter scenario, the remote computer may be connected to the user's computer through any network format, such as a Local Area Network (LAN) or a Wide Area Network (WAN), or the connection may be made to an external computer (for example, through the Internet), or in a cloud computing environment, or as a service, such as a software as a service (SaaS).

Additionally, the order in which elements and sequences of the processes described herein are processed, the use of alphanumeric characters, or the use of other designations, is not intended to limit the order of the processes and methods described herein, unless explicitly claimed. While various presently contemplated embodiments have been discussed in the foregoing disclosure by way of example, it should be understood that such detail is solely for that purpose and that the appended claims are not limited to the disclosed embodiments, but, on the contrary, are intended to cover all modifications and equivalent arrangements that are within the spirit and scope of the embodiments herein. For example, although the system components described above may be implemented by hardware devices, they may also be implemented by software-only solutions, such as installing the described system on an existing server or mobile device.

Similarly, it should be noted that in the preceding description of embodiments of the application, various features are sometimes grouped together in a single embodiment, figure, or description thereof for the purpose of streamlining the disclosure and aiding in the understanding of one or more of the embodiments. This method of disclosure, however, is not intended to require more features than are expressly recited in the claims. Indeed, the embodiments may be characterized as having less than all of the features of a single embodiment disclosed above.

Numerals describing the number of components, attributes, etc. are used in some embodiments, it being understood that such numerals used in the description of the embodiments are modified in some instances by the use of the modifier "about", "approximately" or "substantially". Unless otherwise indicated, "about", "approximately" or "substantially" indicates that the number allows a variation of ± 20%. Accordingly, in some embodiments, the numerical parameters used in the specification and claims are approximations that may vary depending upon the desired properties of the individual embodiments. In some embodiments, the numerical parameter should take into account the specified significant digits and employ a general digit preserving approach. Notwithstanding that the numerical ranges and parameters setting forth the broad scope of the range are approximations, in the specific examples, such numerical values are set forth as precisely as possible within the scope of the application.

The entire contents of each patent, patent application publication, and other material cited in this application, such as articles, books, specifications, publications, documents, and the like, are hereby incorporated by reference into this application. Except where the application is filed in a manner inconsistent or contrary to the present disclosure, and except where the claim is filed in its broadest scope (whether present or later appended to the application) as well. It is noted that the descriptions, definitions and/or use of terms in this application shall control if they are inconsistent or contrary to the statements and/or uses of the present application in the material attached to this application.

Finally, it should be understood that the embodiments described herein are merely illustrative of the principles of the embodiments of the present application. Other variations are also possible within the scope of the present application. Thus, by way of example, and not limitation, alternative configurations of the embodiments of the present application can be viewed as being consistent with the teachings of the present application. Accordingly, the embodiments of the present application are not limited to only those embodiments explicitly described and depicted herein.

Claims

A method for charging and navigating an electric wheelchair is characterized by comprising the following steps:

acquiring the residual electric quantity of the electric wheelchair, and when the residual electric quantity is smaller than a set threshold value, performing the following steps:

acquiring the current position of the electric wheelchair;

searching for a charging facility within a certain range of the current position of the electric wheelchair;

acquiring the searched position of the charging facility;

screening the searched charging facilities;

sending the screened charging facilities to the wheelchair and/or a user terminal for selection by a user;

determining navigation information according to the current position of the wheelchair and the position of a charging facility selected by a user, wherein the navigation information comprises one or more navigation paths; and

and sending the navigation information to the wheelchair and/or a user terminal to prompt a user.
The electric wheelchair charging navigation method of claim 1, wherein the step of filtering the searched charging facilities further comprises:

determining the travelable distance of the electric wheelchair according to the residual electric quantity of the electric wheelchair; and

and screening the charging facilities according to the travelable distance.
The method for electric wheelchair charging and navigation as claimed in claim 1, wherein the step of filtering the searched charging facilities further comprises:

acquiring the number of available charging interfaces of the searched charging facility; and

and screening the charging facilities according to the number of the available charging interfaces.
The method for electric wheelchair charging navigation of claim 1, wherein the step of determining navigation information based on the current location of the wheelchair and the location of the user-selected charging facility further comprises:

if the charging facility selected by the user is located indoors, the navigation information comprises one or more of the number of floors on which the charging facility is located, available elevators arriving at the charging facility, estimated arrival time and estimated charging time; and

the navigation information includes one or more of non-motorized lane information, road obstacle information, predicted arrival time, predicted charging time if the user-selected charging facility is located outdoors.
An electric wheelchair charging navigation device, comprising:

one or more processors configured to perform the steps of:

acquiring the residual electric quantity of the electric wheelchair, and when the residual electric quantity is smaller than a set threshold value, performing the following steps:

acquiring the current position of the electric wheelchair;

searching for a charging facility within a certain range of the current position of the electric wheelchair;

acquiring the searched position of the charging facility;

screening the searched charging facilities;

sending the screened charging facilities to the wheelchair and/or a user terminal for selection by a user;

determining navigation information according to the current position of the wheelchair and the position of a charging facility selected by a user, wherein the navigation information comprises one or more navigation paths; and

and sending the navigation information to the wheelchair and/or a user terminal to prompt a user.
The electric wheelchair charging navigation apparatus of claim 5, wherein the step of filtering the searched charging facilities further comprises:

determining the travelable distance of the electric wheelchair according to the residual electric quantity of the electric wheelchair; and

and screening the charging facilities according to the travelable distance.
The electric wheelchair charging navigation device of claim 5, wherein the step of filtering the searched charging facilities further comprises:

acquiring the number of available charging interfaces of the searched charging facility; and

and screening the charging facilities according to the number of the available charging interfaces.
The electric wheelchair charging navigation apparatus of claim 5, wherein the step of determining navigation information based on the current location of the wheelchair and the location of the user-selected charging facility further comprises:

if the charging facility selected by the user is located indoors, the determined navigation information comprises one or more of the number of floors on which the charging facility is located, available elevators to reach the charging facility, estimated arrival time, and estimated charging time; and

if the user-selected charging facility is located outdoors, the determined navigation information includes one or more of non-motorway information, road obstacle information, predicted arrival time, predicted charging time.
An electric wheelchair charging navigation system, comprising:

the electric quantity detection module is used for acquiring the residual electric quantity of the electric wheelchair and comparing the residual electric quantity with a set threshold value;

the information acquisition module is used for acquiring the current position of the electric wheelchair;

the searching module is used for searching for charging facilities within a certain range from the current position;

the screening module is used for screening the searched charging facilities;

the information sending module is used for sending the screened charging facilities to the wheelchair and/or the user terminal for selection by a user;

a navigation information determination module for determining navigation information according to a current position of the wheelchair and a position of a charging facility selected by the user, wherein the navigation information includes one or more navigation paths;

and the navigation information prompting module is used for sending the navigation information to the wheelchair and/or the user terminal to prompt a user.
The electric wheelchair charging navigation system of claim 9, wherein the screening module is further configured to:

determining the travelable distance of the electric wheelchair according to the residual electric quantity of the electric wheelchair; and

and screening the charging facilities according to the travelable distance.
The electric wheelchair charging navigation system of claim 9, wherein the screening module is further configured to:

acquiring the number of the searched available charging interfaces of the charging facility; and

and screening the charging facilities according to the number of the available charging interfaces.
The electric wheelchair charging navigation system of claim 9, wherein the navigation information determination module is further configured to:

if the charging facility selected by the user is located indoors, the determined navigation information comprises one or more of the number of floors on which the charging facility is located, available elevators to reach the charging facility, estimated arrival time, and estimated charging time; and

if the user-selected charging facility is located outdoors, the determined navigation information includes one or more of non-motorway information, road obstacle information, predicted arrival time, predicted charging time.
A computer-readable storage medium, wherein the storage medium stores one or more computer instructions;

when the computer instructions are executed, performing the steps of:

acquiring the residual electric quantity of the electric wheelchair, and when the residual electric quantity is smaller than a set threshold value, performing the following steps:

acquiring the current position of the electric wheelchair;

searching for a charging facility within a certain range of the current position of the electric wheelchair;

acquiring the searched position of the charging facility;

screening the searched charging facilities;

sending the screened charging facilities to the wheelchair and/or a user terminal for selection by a user;

determining navigation information according to the current position of the wheelchair and the position of a charging facility selected by a user, wherein the navigation information comprises one or more navigation paths; and

and sending the navigation information to the wheelchair and/or a user terminal to prompt a user.