Development of stair locomotive wheelchair with adjustable wheelbase

This paper describes stair locomotive wheelchair with adjustable wheelbase. Recently, development of stair locomotive wheelchair has been carried out due to the increase in wheelchair users. However, their wheelchair is limited to climb only same size of stairs. This is because the wheelbase can not be changed, is inferred. Thus, we propose stair locomotive wheelchair with adjustable wheelbase. In particular, motion strategy when travelling stairs and relation between wheelbase and stairs size, is discussed. In Addition, measurement method by using Laser Range Finder in order to measure unknown stairs height and depth is proposed. After the fluctuation of wheelbase is estimated by simulation, the availability is confirmed by experiments of stairs locomotion.