Robotic wheelchairs with built-in assistive fea-
tures, such as shared control, are an emerging means of
providing independent mobility to severely disabled individuals.
However, patients often struggle to build a mental model of
their wheelchair’s behaviour under different environmental
conditions. Motivated by the desire to help users bridge this
gap in perception, we propose a novel augmented reality
system using a Microsoft Hololens as a head-mounted aid for
wheelchair navigation. The system displays visual feedback to
the wearer as a way of explaining the underlying dynamics
of the wheelchair’s shared controller and its predicted future
states. To investigate the influence of different interface design
options, a pilot study was also conducted. We evaluated the
acceptance rate and learning curve of an immersive wheelchair
training regime, revealing preliminary insights into the potential
beneficial and adverse nature of different augmented reality
cues for assistive navigation. In particular, we demonstrate that
care should be taken in the presentation of information, with
effort-reducing cues for augmented information acquisition (for
example, a rear-view display) being the most appreciated.