A new drive system for battery operated wheelchairs using 3-phase cage rotor induction machines

Because of cost considerations, a novel approach to a battery-fed wheelchair drive system is introduced. The drive employs two inexpensive 200-W three-phase cage rotor induction machines with a maximum speed of 6000 rpm. The machines are fed by two low-loss, state-of-the-art three-phase pulse-width-modulation (PWM) FET-based inverters. A simple control and differential algorithm and PWM-generation is implemented in a single INTEL 80196 microprocessor. An experimental setup for dynamic drive evaluation, comprising an accurately controllable load, is also reported, and the characteristics of the drive are illustrated experimentally.<>