Design and Implementation of an Omnidirectional Wheelchair: Control System and Its Applications

With the accelerating development of aged tendency of population and rapid growth in the number of the disabled caused by diseases or injuries, the wheelchair with good performance for the aged and disabled is attracting the attention from the society. A wheelchair can provide the user with many benefits, such as maintaining mobility, continuing or broadening community and social activities, conserving strength and energy, and enhancing quality of life. The wheelchair body must be compact enough to go through narrow doorways. The wheelchair must be wide enough to prevent the patient from falling on the floor. A large footprint is therefore desirable for stability and safety, while wheelchairs must conform to dimensional constraints. For this reason, in this paper, we present the design and implementation of an omni directional wheelchair, which has a small size and can move easily in narrow spaces. We present the design of the proposed omni directional wheelchair and discuss some implementation and application issues.