A New Design Identification and Control Based on GA Optimization for An Autonomous Wheelchair

Abstract

The daily lifestyle of an average human has changed drastically. Robotics and AI systems are applied to many fields, including the medical field. An autonomous wheelchair that improves the degree of independence that a wheelchair user has can be a very useful contribution to society. This paper presents the design and implementation of an autonomous wheelchair that uses LIDAR to navigate and perform SLAM. It uses the ROS framework and allows the user to choose a goal position through a touchscreen or using deep learning-based voice recognition. It also presents a practical implementation of system identification and optimization of PID control gains, which are applied to the autonomous wheelchair robot. Input/output data were collected using Arduino, consisting of linear and angular speeds and wheel PWM signal commands, and several black-box models were developed to simulate the actual wheelchair setup. The best-identified model was the NLARX model, which had the highest square error (0.1259) among the other candidate models. In addition, using MATLAB, Optimal PID gains were obtained from the genetic algorithm. Performance on real hardware was evaluated and compared to the identified model response. The two responses were identical, except for some of the noise due to the encoder measurement errors and wheelchair vibration.

Keywords

• system identification
• genetic algorithm (GA)
• PID controller
• wheelchair
• navigation