Abstract
We propose a guidance control system to allow a wheelchair to follow a service dog by detecting the relative velocity and angle between the wheelchair and the dog. In this control system, the electric wheelchair employs a guidance unit that is composed of a long lead and winder on the tip of the left armrest. The tip of the lead is connected to the harness worn by the dog, and the length and the direction angle of the lead are detected by two potentiometers in the guidance unit. Both translational and rotational signals to control the electric wheelchair are generated by these two pieces of detected information. In this study, the task of pulling the wheelchair was imitated by using an electric running mechanism in place of the service dog. We describe a method for adjusting a guidance control system based on the experimental results.
