Proposal of Target Position Estimation Type Driving Control and Operation Training System for Power-Assisted Wheelchairs

Abstract

Power-assisted wheelchairs that assists the driving torque by electric motors are effective for the daily life of elderly people and handicapped people, however, the users with unbalanced force of right and left arms due to some disability are difficult to drive as he/she requests. Therefore this paper proposes a driving control system of power-assisted wheelchairs with the target position estimation based on the individual operation characteristics model. In addition, an operation training system by visual feedback to improve the user’s proficiency is also proposed. Some experiment results are provided to show the effectiveness of the proposed driving control system and training system.