Abstract
In this paper, an assist method for human's operation of electric-powered wheelchairs is developed. The purpose of this research is to make powered wheelchair intelligent and to develop a mobility aid for people, who find it difficult or impossible to drive a conventional wheelchair. On a prototype of our group, a neural network produces an obstacle avoidance function. In this research, by the approach that connection weights of the neural network vary according to the condition of obstacles in the neighborhood of the wheelchair and the running state of wheelchair, we improve the obstacle avoidance function First, neural networks evolve by using digital computer simulator. Secondly, experiments, using a prototype with six wheels implemented neural networks whose connection weights are given by numerical studies, demonstrate that the neural network with variable connection weights exhibits the more excellent ability of obstacle avoidance.
