In the MICA (Mobile Internet Connected Assistant) project a high tech wheelchair has been controlled remotely with MATLAB/Java software client-server implementations. Sensor servers that read, time stamp and store sensor device measurements to databases, runs concurrently on an embedded PC running Linux.

The network clients used to read sensor values from the servers are written in Java. That gives them portability between different platforms and architectures.

MATLAB client programs runs on stationary computers. These are used to process andvisualize collected data from the wheelchair. MATLAB programs are also used to control and make the wheelchair run semi-autonomously.

The combination of MATLAB/Java software is good for fast development, implementation and testing of algorithms in both education and research.

With the client/server approach it is possible to have one computer to run a complex and power consuming control algorithm and another one to handle the GUI. Both computers execute MATLAB programs and they run concurrently and have mutual exchange of data over the Internet.

When a program works properly in MATLAB it can be ported to Java for faster execution speed and portability.