Abstract
This paper deals with a navigation control and a remote of an electromotion wheelchair in a hospital site. This navigation system has two computers, a host machine set on the wheelchair and a remote machine set on the control center (or a nurse center). The wheelchairs carry the patients and the handicapped persons. Though it is a very useful vehicle, a nurse or a supplementary person have to push the wheelchair. Therefore, the system, that is able to lead the wheelchair to the destination area (goal) by itself without needing any sup-plements, is expected. In this paper, the recognition of an environment structure, a route search of a goal to move the wheelchair, and the designs of the fuzzy rules to realize the wheelchair navigation are done. After that, the fuzzy navigation control system is developed. The navigation system is consists of a predictive avoid-ance control unit, the route guidance control unit (based on a site map and self-location of wheelchair), the re-mote control unit (based on no map or the lost state of self-location), and so on. By this navigation system, the moving environment for the wheelchair with a little load can be realized. In addition, the patient privacy is also protected.
