전동휠체어를 위한 유무선 통합 제어기 개발

Abstract

A large number of physically disabled people use motorized wheelchair in order to solve such inconvenience. However, it may be a little difficult for the physically disabled people who cannot precisely move their hands to use general-purpose wheelchair joystick. In addition, when physically disabled people get into an automobile, it is extremely difficult for them to solve problems such as to keep their motorized wheelchair at a certain place or to move loading it in the vehicle without any help of others. Furthermore, even when guardians help motorized wheelchair users to operate the motorized wheelchair instead of them due to the inexperience, it is required to customize by adding costs or to purchase another controller. Therefore, this study has developed the integrated motorized wheelchair controller including the operational function of the alternative switch for the users who have difficulty in using joystick and the wireless control function of motorized wheelchair using Android-based smartphone in order to improve the mobility of physically disabled people who have these restraints. In this study, 3 university students participated in the experiment that they ran down Z-shaped hallway in electric wheelchairs including lamps 10 times and examined the usability of the developed interface. As experimental results, it shows that the run using smartphone was a little slower than that using the general-purpose controller. However, it was not very difficult for the guardians or user to use it. In addition, the run using the alternative switch was slow, but it stayed on the course without breakaway. Thus, it showed the possibility of controlling the motorized wheelchair by the alternative switch. Thus, using the integrated motorized wheelchair controller created by this study will make it possible for physically disabled people who have difficulties in using the joystick to move the motorized wheelchair by using the alternative switch. The wireless control using smartphone enables the guardians to easily control the motorized wheelchair and the electric wheelchair users to park it wherever they want, or to load it in their automobiles.