A Semiautomatic Door-Passing Assistance System in Narrow Spaces for Personal Mobility

Abstract

Controlling personal mobility (PM) in a narrow space is not easy. In particular, passing through a door is quite difficult because it requires simultaneous operation of door opening/closing and PM maneuvering. In this study, we propose a semiautomatic operation support system for passing doors by sharing roles, i.e., the door opening/closing by the operator and PM maneuvering by the system, to reduce the burden on the operator. The system enables PM to pass through doors regardless of the position of the door knob and the angle of PM toward the door while avoiding surrounding obstacle. The results of experiments indicates that the proposed semiautomatic system could pass through various doors more easily and comfortably than manual operations.