Research in Smart Accessibility develops assistive agents and technologies to transform end-to-end mobility experiences for people with disabilities, emphasizing dignity, autonomy, trust, and real-world usability. We investigate how integration of technology, human, and social-psychological factors can synergistically inform design and adoption of smart, connected, accessible, and user-centered end to end mobility for people with disabilities. These assistive technologies are integrated with anticipatory agents within a digital twin of the built environment to enable individuals to safely navigate to, and identify and locate multiple objects in unfamiliar spaces.
Embedded Files
Enabling Technologies
End-to-End Contextual Navigation Guidance
Shared Control of Mobility Devices
Scene Understanding of Physical Spaces
Multi-Object Search and Retrieval
Publications (Click to Expand)
Xu, Y,. Kamat, V, and Menassa, C. (2026). “Open-Vocabulary Semantic Segmentation with Uncertainty Alignment for Robotic Scene Understanding of Indoor Building Spaces.” Journal of Computing in Civil Engineering. ASCE. Accepted.
Xu, Y., Kamat, V. and Menassa, C. (2026). “Seeing with Partial Certainty: Conformal Prediction for Robotic Scene Recognition in Built Environments.” Proceedings of the 2025 ASCE International Conference on Computing in Civil Engineering (i3CE). https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784486436.012.
Zhou, X., Menassa, C. and Kamat, V. (2026). “Towards Probabilistic Inference of Human Motor Intentions by Assistive Mobile Robots Controlled via a Brain-Computer Interface.” Proceedings of the 2025 ASCE International Conference on Computing in Civil Engineering (i3CE). https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784486436.108.
Xu, Y., Wang, Q.*, Kamat, V. and Menassa, C. (2025). “Socially-Aware Shared Control Navigation for Assistive Mobile Robots in the Built Environment.” Journal of Computing in Civil Engineering. ASCE. Volume 40, Issue 1, https://doi.org/10.1061/JCCEE5.CPENG-6428.
Zhou, X., Menassa, C. and Kamat, V. (2025). “Hands-free Crowdsensing of Accessibility Barriers in Sidewalk Infrastructure: A Brain-Computer Interface Approach.” Journal of Infrastructure Systems. ASCE. 31 (2). https://doi.org/10.1061/JITSE4.ISENG-2620
Xu, Y., Wang, Q., Lillie, J., Kamat, V. and Menassa, C. (2025). “CoNav Chair: Design of a ROS-based Smart Wheelchair for Shared Control Navigation in the Built Environment.” Proceedings of the International Symposium on Automation and Robotics in Construction (ISARC), IAARC. DOI: https://doi.org/10.22260/ISARC2025/0046.
Xu, Y., Lui, Z., Wang, Q., Kamat, V. and Menassa, C. (2025). “Point2Graph: An End-to-end End Point Cloud-based 3D Open-Vocabulary Scene Graph for Robot Navigation.” Proceedings of the 2025 IEEE International Conference on Robotics & Automation (ICRA). DOI: 10.1109/ICRA55743.2025.11127471.
Zhou, X., Menassa, C. and Kamat, V. (2025). “Exploring Annotation Automation for Urban Landscape Accessibility Assessment Based on Simulated Neurophysiological Data.” Proceedings of the 2024 ASCE International Conference on Computing in Civil Engineering (i3CE). https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784486139.0
Xu, Y., Kamat, V. and Menassa, C. (2025). “A Shared Autonomy based Wheelchair Navigation Stack considering User Preference and Control.” Proceedings of the 2024 ASCE International Conference on Computing in Civil Engineering (i3CE). https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784486139.018
Udupa, S., Kamat, V. and Menassa, C. (2023). "Shared Autonomy in Assistive Mobile Robots: A Review." Disability and Rehabilitation: Assistive Technology. ITcon. 18 (6), 827-848 doi: 10.1080/17483107.2021.1928778.
Mantha, B., Jung, M.K., de Soto, B.G., Menassa, C., and Kamat, V. (2020) " Generalized task allocation and route planning for robots with multiple depots in indoor building environments." Automation in Construction, Elsevier. 119, November 2020, Pages 103359: 1-10.
Mantha, B., Menassa, C., Kamat, V. and D’Souza, C. (2020) "Evaluation of Preference and Constraint-Sensitive Path-Planning for Assisted Navigation in Indoor Building Environments." Journal of Computing in Civil Engineering, ASCE. 34(1): 04019050: 1-18.
Xu, L., Feng C., Kamat, V. and Menassa, C. (2019). “An Occupancy Grid Mapping Enhanced Visual SLAM for Real-Time Locating Applications in Indoor GPS-Denied Environments.” Automation in Construction, Elsevier. 104, August 2019, Pages 230-245.
Xu, L., Feng C., Kamat, V. and Menassa, C. (2019). “Enhancing Visual SLAM with Occupancy Grid Mapping for Real-Time Locating Applications in Indoor GPS-Denied Environments.” Proceedings of the 2019 ASCE International Conference on Computing in Civil Engineering (i3CE), Atlanta, GA, USA. 344-351.
Mantha, B., Menassa, C. and Kamat, V. (2018). "Multi-Robot Task Allocation and Route Planning for Indoor Building Environment Applications." 2018 Construction Research Congress (CRC), New Orleans, LA. 137-146.
Media (Click to Expand)
“U-M CEE Engineers Pioneer Automation for Wheelchair Users.” Michigan Engineering, April 18, 2025.
“Smart Robotic Wheelchair Offers Enhanced Autonomy and Control.” Tech Xplore, February 04, 2025.
“Empowering End-To-End Mobility for Wheelchair Users.” The Michigan Minds Podcast, Season 6, Episode 29, December 2022. (Podcast features Carol Menassa and Vineet Kamat).
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