Design and implementation of a novel power assisted drivetrain for a wheelchair

Power assisted wheelchairs are one of the most advanced wheelchairs in the current commercial market. Although such wheelchairs are well suited for a physically disabled person who needs physical activity, they tend to be expensive and inefficiently designed. This paper introduces the overall development of a novel power assisted wheelchair. Research on the conventional three types of wheelchair is presented, as well as the comparisons among three kinds of wheelchair and the recent design research. The proposed power assisted wheelchair is meant to match and exceed the conventional wheelchair´s performance but with a more intelligent and lower cost design. Instead of using a torque sensor or pressure transducers for measuring and amplifying human force, the proposed drive train controller uses infrared sensors to trigger two Brushless DC hub motors. Using this information in addition to the information from a motion sensor that detects the road conditions, appropriate torque command is generated. The whole drive train system´s power is supplied by a Li-battery package. One wheelchair prototype has been built, and conceptual designs are modeled and simulated in MATLAB/Simulink.