Vision BasedPowerAssist Control for Functional Behavior ofRobotic Wheelchair
Hiroyuki Shimizu · 2007
Thispaper presents a vision basednovelapproach of power assist motioncontrol forrobotic wheelchair. Intheproposed motioncontroller, thehumanforce andwheelchair velocity are esti- matedonlyfromvisual information. Thisapproach usingvision and force basedassist control makesitpossible tofacilitate sophisticated interactions between humanforce anddynamic environments suchas humanfollowing assist, obstacle avoidance andso on.Forvelocity es- timation, three dimensional information isobtained bystereo images, andtheoptical fHowvectors are alsousedforself-velocity estimation atreal-time, anditsvelocity isusedasfeedback signal ofvelocity con- troller ofwheelchair. Furthermore theforce basedassist function is integrated intovision basedvelocity controller. Thenhumanforce is alsoestimated byvision basedreaction force observer. Thevalidities of thepower assist control areverified byseveral experimental results.