Fall Avoidance Control Of Wheeled Inverted Pendulum Type Robotic Wheelchair While Climbing Stairs

Abstract

The wheelchair is the major means of transport for<br> physically disabled people. However, it cannot overcome architectural<br> barriers such as curbs and stairs. In this paper, the authors proposed<br> a method to avoid falling down of a wheeled inverted pendulum type<br> robotic wheelchair for climbing stairs. The problem of this system<br> is that the feedback gain of the wheels cannot be set high due to<br> modeling errors and gear backlash, which results in the movement<br> of wheels. Therefore, the wheels slide down the stairs or collide with<br> the side of the stairs, and finally the wheelchair falls down. To avoid<br> falling down, the authors proposed a slider control strategy based on<br> skyhook model in order to decrease the movement of wheels, and a<br> rotary link control strategy based on the staircase dimensions in order<br> to avoid collision or slide down. The effectiveness of the proposed<br> fall avoidance control strategy was validated by ODE simulations and<br> the prototype wheelchair.