車椅子使用者と介助者のコミュニケーション促進のための自動併進形ロボット車椅子

抄録

In this research, a concept of robotic wheelchair which automatically follows a human caregiver side by side is proposed. This concept is aiming to promote the communication between a wheelchair rider and his/her caregiver since they can talk face-to-face while advancing forward. This research focuses on a derivation of a motion control law to achieve the autonomous side-following by the robotic wheelchair, determination of parameter values of virtual spring and dampers connecting the robot and caregiver to establish the side-following which is suitable for comfortable communication, based on an impedance method. The determination of the parameter values has been done by considering the two physical conditions regarding the communication, loudness of the voice, elevation angle of one’s neck to see other’s face, and convergence of the relative position and orientation are considered. Finally, an experimental prototype robotic wheelchair having a LRF and a bird’s eye view camera, and four-active caster modules is fabricated to perform side-following motion control experiment in a room-environment. The obtained results demonstrated that the prototype wheelchair robot converged to a commanded relative position against a human subject, and proposed the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method.