Development of a Human-Friendly Omnidirectional Wheelchair with Safety, Comfort and Operability Using a Smart Interface

by Kazuhiko Terashima, Juan Urbano, Hideo Kitagawa, T

1. A local map was built around the OMW by using range sensors. This local map allows knowing the distance from the OMW to the surrounding obstacles in a circle with a radius of 3 [m]. The information provided by the local map, as well as the information of velocity of the OMW were used for varying the stiffness of a haptic joystick that sents information to the hand of the occupant of the OMW. As the distance to the nearer obstacles decreases and the velocity of the OMW increases, the...