Development of collision avoidance supporting system for power assist system in omni-directional mobile robot

In the omni-directional wheelchair, the power assist system for the attendant is effective for persons who don´t have enough power, such as the elderly people and disabled people. In addition, it is difficult for a novice operator to navigate an omni-directional wheelchair through a narrow space like an elevator door or a path along the wall because it is always necessary to keep in mind the width of the vehicle. Such navigation can give stress to the operator. In those cases, an operational assistant system that appeals to human´s haptic sensation can be useful. In this paper, a novel operational assistant system using laser scanning sensor in the power assist system is proposed for the omni-directional wheelchair. The present operational assistant system adopts a power assist system using the handle with 6-DOF force/torque sensor in order to the induce operator spontaneously evading obstacle.