Coordinated motion of a new staircase climbing wheelchair with increased passenger comfort

This paper describes the mechanical devices, the movements and the trajectory generation of a novel wheelchair prototype capable of climbing staircases. The key feature of the mechanical design is the use of two decoupled mechanisms for each axle, one used to negotiate steps, and the other to position the axle with respect to the chair to accommodate the overall slope. This decoupling makes many different climbing strategies possible, the overall mechanism becoming extraordinarily versatile from a control point of view. A control system is necessary to synchronize the movements of all the actuators of the wheelchair so that its centre of mass can follow arbitrary spatial trajectories. Different trajectories have been designed in order to keep the seat as erect as possible to guarantee passenger comfort. Experimental results with the real prototype are reported which show the efficiency of our mechanism, the accuracy of the developed kinematic models for control, and the comparison of comfort for two different spatial trajectories