Shared-control and force-reflection joystick algorithm for the door passing of mobile robot or powered wheelchair

Proposes a shared control method which is capable of passing doors when an operator drives a mobile robot or electric-powered wheelchair by using a force-reflection joystick. When the operator controls the mobile-base like robot or wheelchair with attached distance-measuring sensors, the system can provide many advantages because the operator can be conscious of obstacles around the robot by force reflection. The role of the distance-measuring sensors in this case is to provide discrete graph information. Therefore, we can calculate the force that should be generated. The sensor data is considered as vector components. However, this theory has a defect that the robot could not pass a door because of the door architecture. In this case, the vector force concept interferes with the operator's steering. Therefore, we proposed a shared control method using a vector value with Gaussian distribution and obstacle information. This method modifies subtly the direction of steering by those data. Through the experiments, we have confirmed that the proposed shared-control algorithm is very efficient at door passing.