Operationality improvement control of Electric power assisted wheelchair by fuzzy algorithm

This paper describes the operationality improvement control for electric power assisted wheelchairs. ldquoelectric power assisted wheelchairrdquo which assists the driving force by electric motors is expected to be widely used as a mobility support system for elderly people and disabled people, however, the performance of the straight and circular road driving must be further improved because the two wheels drive independently. This paper proposes the operationality improvement control by fuzzy algorithm to realize the stable and reliable driving on straight and circular roads. The suitable assisted torque of the right and left wheels is determined by fuzzy algorithm based on the posture angular velocity, the posture angle of the wheelchair, the human input torque proportion and the total human torque of the right and left wheels. Some experiments on the practical roads show the effectiveness of the proposed control system.