Development of Portable Active Suspension for Welfare Support Devices: Controller Design and Performance Evaluation of One-Degree-of-Freedom Prototype

Abstract

In this study, we developed a small prototype of a one-degree-of-freedom portable active suspension for welfare support devices. The suspension is expected to be applied to welfare support devices such as wheelchairs, transport trolleys, and child seats. This paper presents the mechanism and the state space representation of the developed suspension, and an evaluation of the frequency domain characteristics and time domain response of the controlled system with poles assignment method. Furthermore, experiments under three road surface conditions were conducted to verify the effectiveness of the developed suspension.