Research on Traction Performance of Intelligent Wheelchair Based on Ground Mechanics

With the accelerating aging process and the increasing number of disabled people in today’s society, the increasingly complex road surfaces have restricted the travel of these people. This paper investigates the traction performance of wheelchairs when driving on soft inside, studies the mechanical characteristics of wheel-ground contact of intelligent wheelchairs on gravel roads based on wheel-soil ground mechanics, establishes a wheelchair wheel-gravel dynamics model, and predicts and analyzes the traction performance of wheelchairs’ drive wheels on gravel roads. And the validity of the prediction results of this theoretical model was verified by using the whole vehicle test method with a laboratory-built soil trough. Through analysis and comparison, the results of the soil trough test are closer to the predicted results of the theoretical model, indicating that the theoretical analysis has good feasibility and validity and can be used to predict the traction performance of wheelchairs on loose surfaces.