A Driving Assistance for a Powered Wheelchair with a Walking Partner

Accompanying a person is one of the core capacities of a personal mobility vehicle and demands a smooth movement function with collision avoidance. In previous studies on a personal mobility vehicle, a vehicle moves in synchrony with a walking partner. However, in some cases, especially where potentially dangerous obstacles appear in the environment, a vehicle should lead its partner. In this case, a vehicle that leads its partner in appropriate environments should also enable smoother and more effective movement with the partner. This, this study aims to develop a motion design that realizes smooth cooperative movement with a human partner for a personal mobility vehicle. Our proposed vehicle not only estimates its partner's intention and moves accordingly but also reveals its own intention to the partner. To realize this objective, we investigate conditions that induce the partner's movements and propose a motion design that follows the partner's intended movement. Our proposed method is installed in our omnidirectional prototype vehicle and evaluated its effectiveness in experiments.