Straight and circular road driving control of power assisted wheelchair based on balanced assisted torque

This paper describes a straight and circular road driving control scheme for power assisted wheelchair. Power assisted wheelchair 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 are driven independently. This paper proposes a straight and circular road driving control scheme based on the balanced assisted torque between the two wheels. The balanced assisted torque is determined from the proportion of the human input torque to the right and left wheels. Some experiments and subjective evaluation show the effectiveness of the proposed control system.