Deceleration control system for electric-powered wheelchairs with efficient EDLC Charge/Discharge

Abstract

This paper describes a novel electric double-layer capacitor (EDLC) regenerative braking control scheme for electricpowered wheelchairs that provides efficient driving planning. Electric-powered wheelchairs generate their driving force using electric motors and are expected to be widely used as mobility support systems for elderly and disabled people. However, their energy efficiency has to be further improved because they are driven only by battery energy. This study proposes a deceleration control scheme with EDLC charge/discharge and jerk and deceleration limitation. The decelerating velocity reference is designed to increase the regeneration energy and reduce the consumption energy based on real-time continuous deceleration pattern generation with jerk limitation. Some experiments are performed to verify the effectiveness of the proposed system.