Development of Power-Assisted Wheelchair with Consideration of Driving Environment— Dynamic Estimation of Slope Angle and Adaptive Control System Design

The purpose of the present paper is to realize a high functionality of a power-assisted wheelchair with consideration of the driving environment. It is very important to recognize the environment in order to support wheelchair users and caregivers. In this paper, sensors are used to measure the state of the environment where is slope angle of uphill. Since these sensors implement to the wheelchair, the driving acceleration of wheelchair might influence the observed slope angle of the environment. This paper deals with the estimation problem of slope angle with acceleration compensation based on low-cost sensors. And this report also describes the adaptive control system design that is combined the estimation method of the slope angle. The effectiveness of the proposed estimation method and the adaptive control design is confirmed by simulation and experimental results. Finally, the proposed power-assisted wheelchair is evaluated by the biological signal such as an electromyography (EMG).