Development of wheeled balancing wheelchair for lower limb disabled person: Design of wheelchair platform

Abstract

An electrical wheelchair and a senior car are widely used as a mobility aid for a lower limb disabled person. However, since a conventional mobility aid generally focuses on assistance of mobility, it is difficult for the user to reach to a high position in a sitting posture and to travel a narrow aisle due to a large floor occupied area and turning radius. To cope with these issues, in this paper, a wheeled balancing wheelchair mounting several assisting devices was designed and its prototype was developed. It adopted a wheeled balancing mechanism to improve dynamic stability and driving performance in a complicated human living space. To overcome a drop of driving operability and safety due to the wheeled balancing mechanism, an automatic and a manual slider were introduced to improve acceleration/deceleration and emergency braking performance. In addition, a lifting device was implemented for a rider to reach to a high place. The prototype wheelchair was successfully developed implementing the above devices and a control system.