Advances in Electric Powered Wheelchairs (EPW) have improved mobility for people with disabilities as well as older adults, and have enhanced their integration into society. Some of the issues still present in EPW lie in the difficulties when encountering different types of terrain, and access to higher or low surfaces. To this end, an advanced real-time electrical powered wheelchair controller was developed. The controller was comprised of a hardware platform with sensors measuring the speed of the driving, caster wheels and the acceleration, with a single board computer for implementing the control algorithms in real-time, a multi-layer software architecture, and modular design. A model based real-time speed and traction controller was developed and validated by simulation. The controller was then evaluated via driving over four different surfaces at three specified speeds. Experimental results showed that model based control performed best on all surfaces across the speeds compared to PID (proportional-integral-derivative) and Open Loop control. A real-time slip detection and traction control algorithm was further developed and evaluated by driving the EPW over five different surfaces at three speeds. Results showed that the performance of anti-slip control was consistent on the varying surfaces at different speeds. The controller was also tested on a front wheel drive EPW to evaluate a forwarding tipping detection and prevention algorithm. Experimental results showed that the tipping could be accurately detected as it was happening and the performance of the tipping prevention strategy was consistent on the slope across different speeds. A terrain-dependent EPW user assistance system was developed based on the controller. Driving rules for wet tile, gravel, slopes and grass were developed and validated by 10 people without physical disabilities. The controller was also adapted to the Personal Mobility and Manipulation Appliance (PerMMA) Generation II, which is an advanced power wheelchair with a flexible mobile base, allowing it to adjust the positions of each of the four casters and two driving wheels. Simulations of the PerMMA Gen II system showed that the mobile base controller was able to climb up to 8” curb and maintain passenger’s posture in a comfort position.
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机译：电动轮椅（EPW）的进步改善了残疾人和老年人的活动能力，并增强了他们融入社会的能力。 EPW中仍然存在的一些问题在于遇到不同类型的地形以及进入较高或较低的地面时遇到的困难。为此，开发了一种先进的实时电动轮椅控制器。该控制器由一个硬件平台和一个用于实时执行控制算法的单板计算机，一个多层软件体系结构和模块化设计组成，该硬件平台具有测量行驶速度，脚轮速度和加速度的传感器。开发了基于模型的实时速度和牵引力控制器，并通过仿真进行了验证。然后通过以三种指定速度在四个不同的表面上行驶来评估控制器。实验结果表明，与PID（比例积分微分）和开环控制相比，基于模型的控制在所有速度下的所有表面上表现最佳。通过以三种速度在五个不同的表面上驱动EPW，进一步开发和评估了实时滑差检测和牵引力控制算法。结果表明，在不同的速度和不同的表面上，防滑控制的性能是一致的。该控制器还在前轮驱动EPW上进行了测试，以评估前进倾翻检测和预防算法。实验结果表明，可以在发生倾翻时准确地检测到倾翻，并且在不同速度的斜坡上，倾翻预防策略的性能也是一致的。基于控制器开发了基于地形的EPW用户辅助系统。制定了湿砖，砾石，斜坡和草丛的驾驶规则，并由10名没有身体残疾的人进行了验证。该控制器还适用于第二代个人移动和操纵设备（PerMMA），这是一款先进的电动轮椅，具有灵活的移动底座，可以调节四个脚轮和两个驱动轮的位置。 PerMMA Gen II系统的仿真表明，移动式基座控制器能够爬升至8英寸的路缘，并将乘客的姿势保持在舒适的位置。
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