Two-dimensional assist control for power-assisted wheelchair considering straight and rotational motion decomposition

There are many types of wheelchairs. Users are able to choose suitable wheelchair for their purposes. Power-assisted wheelchairs are one type of wheelchairs, which use both propelling torque from human and output torque from motors for their driving force. To improve assist performance, many assist control systems were proposed. One of conventional assist control, proposed by Seki et al., is designed for motion of traveling in straight line. However, it is difficult for wheelchair users to rotate using conventional assist control. In this paper, a novel two-dimensional assist control for power-assisted wheelchairs is proposed. The proposed assist control system is designed for both straight and rotational motion of wheelchair, therefore, power assist performance in rotating motion is improved compared to conventional system.