Abstract

This thesis investigates movement of an electric wheelchair as a wheeled mobile robot (WMR) with a battery rechargeable through regenerative braking.The WMR has two wheels, each of which can propel or brake. This leads to four modes of operation: propel-propel, brake-brake, propel-brake, and brake-propel. Braking can be either done by a propelling wheel using negative torques or by regenerative braking which also applies a negative torque.

The thesis begins with a presentation of the WMR model. Performances Indices (PI) are introduced as metrics for specific driving scenarios. For almost all scenarios, the PI is used in a model predictive control (MPC) strategy for the following set of scenarios with and without noisy measurements on the distance to a wall which simulate a noisy sensor measurement for:

-a wall following scenario

-a wall cornering scenario

-a combined scenario

Results of a combined scenario with Parkinsonian noise on distance to the wall measurements and velocity with and withoutthe use of a notch filter are presented and interpreted.

Finally Parkinsonian noise is imposed on a joystick wheelchair control scenario with and without the use of a notch filter.

The central result of this thesis is to erase the Parkinsonian tremor from the input of the joystick of a electric wheelchair to improve the life quality of disabled users.

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Committee Chair

Raymond A. DeCarlo

Committee Co-Chair

Milos Zefran

Date of Award

2013

Committee Member 1

Michael D. Zoltowski

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