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Intelligent Assistive Robots pp 339–369Cite as

Human-Friendly Motion Control of Power-Assisted Wheelchair

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Part of the book series: Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics ((STAR,volume 106))

Abstract

Wheelchairs which have enhanced locomotion of people with muscular weakness or paralysis still can be improved using various assistive technologies, e.g., electric wheelchairs have been developed and widely used for enhancement of the maneuverability and safety of people. The power-assisted wheelchair (PAW) is a relatively new type of a wheelchair, which is equipped with torsion sensors to measure force applied on rims by a human and provides the assistive torque based on the measured force. With this propelling process, the user still can involve with the propulsion of the wheelchair while the assistive torque can relieve the user’s propulsion effort.

This PAW is a case of human-machine interface and requires an adequate control of assistive torques to interact with a human without confliction. To address this issue, human-friendly motion control of the PAW is introduced in this chapter, which consists of the accurate observation of the physical states of the PAW and the disturbance rejection control based on the observed states to support safe and comfortable operation of the PAW.

Several physical states of the PAW are defined as the operation states, which are associated with the motion of the PAW and the environmental condition, and they are observed utilizing multiple motion sensors (i.e., encoders, gyroscopes, and accelerometers) and an algorithm to fuse them. Then, control algorithms to remove the effect of undesired disturbance on the PAW without perturbing human’s operation are developed in a human-friendly way utilizing the observed operation states. The effectiveness of this human-friendly motion control of PAW is verified through various experiments using a commercialized PAW.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Robotics Engineering, Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology (DGIST), Daegu, 711-873, Korea

    Sehoon Oh

  2. Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Systems, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, 113-8656, Japan

    Yoichi Hori

Authors
  1. Sehoon Oh
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  2. Yoichi Hori
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Correspondence to Sehoon Oh .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. LiSSi Laboratory, University Paris-Est/UPEC, Vitry-sur-Seine, France

    Samer Mohammed

  2. Bioengineering Group (GBIO), Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Madrid, Spain

    Juan C. Moreno

  3. Department of Mechanical Engineering Robotic Systems Control Laboratory, Sogang University, Seoul, Korea, Republic of (South Korea)

    Kyoungchul Kong

  4. LiSSi Laboratory, University Paris-Est/UPEC, Vitry-sur-Seine, France

    Yacine Amirat

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Oh, S., Hori, Y. (2015). Human-Friendly Motion Control of Power-Assisted Wheelchair. In: Mohammed, S., Moreno, J., Kong, K., Amirat, Y. (eds) Intelligent Assistive Robots. Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics, vol 106. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-12922-8_13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-12922-8_13

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-12921-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-12922-8

  • eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)

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