Modular Fuzzy Control with Input Shaping

Technique for Transformation of Two-Wheeled

Wheelchair to Four-Wheeled Mode
Salmiah Ahmad
Dept. of Mechatronics,
International Islamic University
Malaysia (IIUM)
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
salmiah@iium.edu.my
M. O. Tokhi N. H. Siddique
Automatic Control & Systems School of Computing &
Engineering, University of Intelligent System,
Sheffield, University of Ulster,
Sheffield, U.K Northern Ireland, U.K
o.tokhi@sheffield.ac.uk Nh.siddique@ulster.ac.uk

Abstract—This paper presents a mechanism for wheelchair
transformation from two-wheeled upright position to four-
wheeled position using a modular fuzzy logic control (MFC)
approach. A wheelchair model that can be operated in four-
wheeled and two-wheeled modes has been developed within
the Visual Nastran environment and integrated with
Simulink for control purposes. A multi-input multi-output
modular fuzzy logic control configuration is designed and
implemented on the wheelchair model. To improve the
system performance, an input shaping technique is
augmented inside the feedback loop. It is shown that the
shaped signals have improved the system performance with
promising results.
Keywords — Wheelchair; Double inverted pendulum;
Nonlinear system; Two-wheeled wheelchair; Fuzzy logic
control ; Input shaping; Modular fuzzy control
I. INTRODUCTION
A two-wheeled wheelchair has a unique characteristic
that may help disabled and elderly people who are using
the wheelchair as the main means of transport to reach
certain heights such that they may be able to pick and
place things on the shelves, cupboard, etc. With good
control strategy the front wheels (casters) can be lifted up
and stabilized as an inverted pendulum, [1], thus
increasing the level of height achievable while in the
upright position. Similarly, when this upright position is
no longer needed it may be transformed back into its
normal four-wheeled position.
Research has shown noticeable evolution in wheelchair
features and functions. Many extra new features have
been incorporated to provide greater flexibility for
wheelchair users in their daily life. Wheelchair users are
able and encouraged to do most of the daily routine on
their own since they are not totally vain while using the
wheelchair. A common activity for people in everyday
life is to pick and place things on shelves and also have
conversation with other people. It is psychologically
good for wheelchair users to have eye-to-eye level
conversation with other people. Thus two-wheeled
wheelchair with added advantage may help them to have
eye-to-eye conversation with normal people effectively.
There is not much research on two-wheeled
wheelchair. The research work presented by Takahashi et
al. [2], aims to help the elderly in self-climbing a step up
to about 10cm while the wheelchair is in the inverted
pendulum condition. They have carried out extensive
work with various schemes. These studies have used PI
control, [3-5].
In this paper, due to the highly nonlinear and multi-
input multi-output (MIMO) nature of the system, fuzzy
logic control (FLC) approach is adopted. Modular fuzzy
control, has been used by the authors for lifting and
stabilizing control, [1] linear motion control, [6] and
steering motion control, [7] of the wheelchair system.
This paper, presents an automatic transformation
mechanism for the wheelchair from two-wheeled mode
back to normal four-wheeled mode using a modular fuzzy
control (MFC) approach. The transformation mechanism
provides flexibility for the wheelchair to be used in both
two-wheeled and four-wheeled configurations. To reduce
vibration and the amount of torque produced by the MFC,
the obtained signals from the MFC are then shaped using
2-impulse input shaping with delays to improve the
system performance.
II. SYSTEM MODEL, DESCRIPTION AND CONTROL
A. Wheelchair and Humanoid Model
Wheelchair on two wheels is a very complex, highly
nonlinear system that has several complicated features to
be modelled and controlled. The two-wheeled wheelchair
is modelled with double links to mimic a double inverted
pendulum scenario, comprising Link1, Link2 and payload
(approximated human weight, 75kg). The mathematical
model of the wheelchair is based on the three independent
actuators, namely left and right wheels and Link2 as
shown in Fig. 1. The corresponding control torques are τL,
τR and τ2. The angular positions of Link1 and Link2,
denoted as δ1 and δ2 respectively, will determine the
system performance. There are three subsystems
considered to derive mathematical equations for the whole
system. These involve the wheels, Link1 and Link2.
 δ2
δ1
Link2
τ2
τ R and τ L Link1
on each wheel
Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of wheelchair with three under actuated
joints
A wheelchair system was modelled using MSC Visual
Nastran 4D (VN) environment, as shown in Fig. 2. It
comprises a standard wheelchair system that is closely
approximated from the actual wheelchair system, and
incorporated with a humanoid model, which is adopted
from [8]. It was modelled in a basic form comprising two
wheels, two casters, frames and axes connected to the
seat. The VN software environment can provide a
visualization showing the lifting, stabilizing and other
functional features. It was used to model the standard
wheelchair and this was integrated with Matlab-Simulink
for control purposes. The wheelchair model developed is
used for designing and testing control strategies before
development of the actual system either at laboratory
level or manufacturing level, thus saving time, energy
and financial cost.
Fig. 2. Complete wheelchair model
B. Transformation Mechanism
The transformation mechanism is depicted in Fig. 3.
Although it is the inverse of lifting mechanism, the input
torques used in lifting are not appropriate to be used for
reverse transformation due to the unusual location of
centre of mass of the system during the transformation
from two-wheeled to four-wheeled mechanism. However,
similar actuators and meters are used for control and
measurement purposes. The difference is on the target
position, where the reference of Link1 is 90°.
Approximated
human weight
Link2
τ2
R and τ L Link1
each wheel
Two-wheeled position For-wheeled position
Fig. 3. Transformation mechanism
C. Modular Fuzzy Control
The MFC is also known as hierarchical fuzzy control
(HFC). These two different terms are used
interchangeably. The goal of the control is to produce the
required torques, namely, τR, τL and τ2, for acting at three
different locations on the wheelchair for the two-wheeled
to four-wheeled transformation mechanism. τR and τL
represent the input torque to the right and left wheels
respectively, and τ2 represents the torque between Link1
and Link2. Angular positions of Link1 and Link2, δ1 and
δ2 respectively, are measured using sensors attached to
the wheelchair in VN. The system is thus characterized as
a highly nonlinear MIMO system. Fuzzy logic control is
therefore very appropriate to use in this case and has been
used with the two-wheeled wheelchair. To achieve the
normal four-wheeled position, Link1 needs to be
transformed back to 90° from the upright 0° position,
while maintaining Link2 at 0° position. The goal may be
treated as a single control system objective, i.e., having
Link1 and Link2 at the 90° and 0° respectively by using a
single controller. This will lead to a huge fuzzy rule-base.
Conventional fuzzy control has significant drawback in
terms of computational complexity, due to increase in the
dimension of the system variables, and the number of
rules increases exponentially as the number of system
variables increases. Therefore to achieve the target within
a short time with a consideration of the robustness and
capability of the complete system, an MFC method is
used, [9].
Previously a similar structure of MFC has been used in
lifting and stabilizing control of Link1 and Link2 and has
given promising system performance, [10]. Thus in the
current transformation case, where the inverse
mechanism of lifting and stabilizing is considered, the
reference point for Link1 is different, 90°. Two-input and
two-output FLC is realized for control of each link. The
angular position of Link1 is such that it finally reaches
90° after the wheelchair is fully transformed from upright
position. The inputs to the motor actuator in the
wheelchair model comprise the right and left wheel
torques (τR, τL) for Link1 while the torque input, τ2 from
a separate controller is used for stabilizing control for
Link2. The output from the wheelchair model is the
angular position of Link1, δ1 and Link2, δ2 (degree). The
model in VN environment was integrated with Matlab-
Simulink, as shown in Fig. 4.
 Simulink rules. Similarly for the output torque, five levels of
Angular Position of Link 1 Visual Nastran membership function are used. The five membership
levels used are Negative Big (NB), Negative Small (NS),
-
Δeδ1 Fuzzy δ1
Zero (Z), Positive Small (PS) and Positive Big (PB).
τR
+ eδ1 Controller 1
90° (FLC1) τL
eδ2
0° Fuzzy
δ2
III. INPUT SHAPER IMPLEMENTATION
Δeδ2 Controller 2 τ2
+
- (FLC2) Input (command) shaping is a well known technique
and used extensively in vibration control applications
Angular Position of Link 2 [11]. flexible manipulators [12-14] and for crane systems
[15-17]. It can be implemented by developing a
convolution process with a delayed sequence of impulses
Fig. 4. Matlab/Simulink integrated with VN with certain gains to produce a shaped command to drive
the system. The input shaper characteristics mimic the
The FLC rules are given in Table I and Table II. The function of filter for unwanted high frequency signals.
shaded row in Table I represents the output torque for left There are two common types of input shaping techniques;
wheel, τL. feed-forward (open-loop) [12, 13] and feedback (closed-
loop) [18, 19] input command shaping. In this work, the
TABLE I. FUZZY RULES FOR WHEEL TORQUES, ΤR, ΤL
input shaper is realized in the feedback closed-loop
∆E cobfiguration as shown in Fig. 5. The proposed input
NB NS Z PS PB shaping method is shown in Fig. 6, where a 2-impulse
E input shaper is used inside the feedback control loop. The
implementation of the task is to determine the amplitude
PB PB PB PS Z of the impulse (gain) and the time location of the impulse
NB (delay). The unshaped signal is sent through multiple
PB PB PB PS Z delay units, ∆i, (i=1,2,..n) and multiplied with gain
PB PB PS Z NS factors, Ki, (i=1,2,..n). The summation of all delayed
NS commands will produce a new shaped signal to use. In the
PB PB PS Z NS figure, the first impulse is placed at Δ1 = 0 to avoid
response delay. For Input Shaper_1, the values of K1 and
PB PS Z NS NB K2 were determined as 0.3 and 0.1 respectively, while K1
Z
PB PS Z NS NB and K2 in Input Shaper_2 were obtained as 0.8 and 0.01
respectively. In this work, the output torques from lifting
PS Z NS NB NB and stabilizing controller of Link1 and Link2 are passed
PS through the input shaper to obtain new shaped signals
PS Z NS NB NB before they are used.
Z NS NB NB NB
PB
Z NS NB NB NB IV. SIMULATION RESULTS
The two-wheeled back to four-wheeled transformation
TABLE II. FUZZY RULES FOR TORQUE BETWEEN LINK1 AND mechanism was incorporated into the wheelchair model
LINK2, Τ2 and tested with the MFC developed in Matlab-Simulink.
∆E The input shapers were implemented at two different
locations in order to improve the output torques for the
NB NS Z PS PB three actuators before they are fed into the system. Results
E show that the transformation using the shaped signals was
NB PB PB PB PS Z successfully accomplished with improved system
NS PB PB PS Z NS performance.
Z PB PS Z NS NB
PS PS Z NS NB NB
τR
PB Z NS NB NB NB 90°
+ FLC1
Controller
Input
Shaper 1 τL

For the first fuzzy controller (FLC1), the controller

Two-Wheeled
inputs are the angular position error of Link1 (eδ1) and the Angular position of Link1, δ1 WC system
change in angular position error in Link1 (∆eδ1). For the
second fuzzy controller (FLC2), the two controller inputs +
FLC2 Input τ2
are the angular position error in Link2 (eδ2) and the 0° Controller Shaper 2

change in the angular position error in Link2 (∆eδ2). The -

fuzzy inputs are normalized so that they can be

generalized and then processed using the fuzzy rules. Angular position of Link2, δ2
Gaussian (bell shaped) type membership functions are
used, as they give smooth and steady response of the
system. These comprise, for eδ1 and ∆eδ1 in FLC1, for Fig. 5. Input shaping implementation inside the feedback loop
instance, five levels of membership resulting in 5×5 = 25

Δ1 K1 Output
Input Torque
(shaped)
Torque
Σ System
(unshaped)
Δ2 K
Fig. 6. 2-impulse input shaping with delays
Fig. 7 shows the performance that resulted from the
MFC with and without input shaping. Lifting and
stabilizing are done at the beginning of the simulation
time and the transformation was executed at t = 4s. For the
transformation, the system took less than 2s to settle. The
dotted lines represent the shaped signals. As the input
shaper is introduced inside the forward path in the loop,
the main concern is to reduce the vibration caused by the
variation in the torques produced. Therefore the input
shaper plays its role in reducing the vibration and the
amount of torque produced by the MFC. It can be seen
that although both Link1 and Link2 do not differ, a
significant reduction of the torques was obtained using
input shaper. The shaped wheel torques, τR and τL settled
at lower value -5Nm/5Nm (shaped) respectively as
compared with the unshaped signals -13Nm/13Nm
(unshaped) respectively without disturbing the system
output, δ1 and δ2. The angular position of Link1, δ1 and
the angular position of Link2, δ2 settled at the target
values, 90° and 0° after the transformation. It is noted in
Fig. 8 that the impulse force between casters and the
ground were slightly reduced with the input shaper. The
angular velocities of Link1 and Link2 were slightly
reduced with input shaper. This shows that the
transformation using the MFC with input shaping
technique was significantly improved.
V. CONCLUSION
A mechanism of two-wheeled to four-wheeled
wheelchair transformation has been presented. Modular
fuzzy control has been used for the transformation
mechanism where Link1 and Link2 are controlled
independently. An input shaper has been introduced in
the controller of each link. A significant reduction in the
amount of torque oscillation, thus improved system
performance, has been achieved with input shaper.
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 100 50

of Link2 (degree)
of Link1 (degree)

Angular position
Angular position 0 0

-100 -50
0 5 10 0 5 10
Time (s) Time (s)

20 20
torque (Nm)

torque (Nm)
Right wheel

Left wheel
0 0

-20 -20
0 5 10 0 5 10
Time (s) Time (s)
Torque between Link1

100
and Link2 (Nm)

Legend
0 without I.S with I.S

-100
0 5 10
Time (s)

Fig. 7. Comparison of the system performance with and without input shaper adaptation

500
30
400
of Link2 (degree/s)
Angular velocity of
Link1 (degree/s)

Angular velocity

20
300
10
200

100 0

0 -10
0 5 10 3 4 5 6
Time (s) Time (s)

80 40
caster and ground (kg m/s)

caster and ground (kg m/s)

Impulse between right

30
Impulse between left

60

40 20

10
20
0
0
-10
0 5 10 0 5 Time (s) 10
Time (s) w ithout I.S w ith I.S
Legend

Fig. 8. Angular Velocity of Link1 and Link2 and impulse between casters and ground comparison with and without input shaper adaptation