A realization of wheelchair pushing operation considering high tracking performance and ride quality improvement by mobile manipulator

This paper describes the control scheme for wheelchair pushing operation considering high tracking performance and ride quality using mobile manipulator. The mobile manipulator has both mobility of the mobile platform and manipulability of the multijoint arms, so it can perform many works. Therefore, it is very effective for work in human environments. This research aims at pushing wheelchairs using the mobile manipulator instead of caretakers because in these days caretakers are lacking due to the declining birthrate and a growing proportion of elderly people. In this paper, Lyapunov function based tracking control is used as tracking control and the compliance control is applied in order to improve ride quality. Additionally, by introducing the capacity error, tracking control scheme considering ride quality is proposed. By simulations, the effect of proposed approach is made definite and a better setting of capacity error is considered.