Academic references that support this idea:

1) This article suggest the areas of improvement for Smart Wheelchairs, addressing technical issues and benefits. The article concludes that Smart Wheelchairs will play an important role, provided that some key factors, like customization and respect for the needs of their users are understood.

“A Comprehensive Review of Smart Wheelchairs: Past, Present and Future By Jesse Leaman, and Hung M. La, Senior Member, IEEE”

Source: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1704.04697.pdf

2) This article shows a feasibility test for a wheelchair with vision based navigation. Despite using hardware that has very limited power compared to similar solution available nowadays, early tests were promising.

“Development of Vision-Based Navigation for a Robotic Wheelchair, by Matt Bailey, Andrew Chanler, Bruce Maxwell, Mark Micire, Katherine Tsui, and Holly Yanco”

Source: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/7fdc/20817f4348947a69dd9912910cec4ee5694a.pdf

3) This article

“Wheeling in the New Millennium: The history of the wheelchair and the driving forces in wheelchair design today By Dr. Bonnita Sawatsky, Department of Orthopaedics, British Columbia's Childrens Hospital, Vancouver, BC, Canada”

Source: https://www.wheelchairnet.org/WCN_WCU/SlideLectures/Sawatzky/WC_history.html

4) This article shows a feasibility study of a robotic-leg hybrid wheelchair, similar in some aspects of the AWAD system we are presenting. Early tests were promising, despite a few issues, and hardware available today greatly surpasses the capabilities of what was used at the time this article was written.

“Design of a robotic-hybrid wheelchair for operation in barrier present environments, By Murray Lawn, Takashi Takeda”

Source: http://murraylawn.org/mjlneww/RobWC.PDF