The electric wheelchair controlled by human body motion

Abstract

This research develops a machine's interface which has features of universal design and offers an intuitive operation for complex tasks. We set a development of interface of electric wheelchair as a practical example, and proceed with this research. The joystick is the operation interface of general electric wheelchair. The user needs to operate it in accordance with machine's operational procedure specifications. Therefore the joystick is convenience operation system for the system side rather than the user side We focus on the body motions which humans have, and try to realize a new type of interface which replaces conventional joystick. In order to measure the human body motion, we adopt the force distribution on the wheelchair. Since pressure distributions on a wheelchair appear on a seat face and a seat back, we examined which parts have strong correlation with the body motion. As a result, it turned out that pressure distribution on a seat back has strong correlation with the body motion. Based on this result, we made a prototype and did a basic experiment. For the result of basic experiment, it was confirmed that the body motion could control a wheelchair.