Omnidirectional Wheelchair with Suspension System for Mobility on Uneven Terrains †

Wheelchairs play a crucial role in society by providing mobility and autonomy to individuals with physical disabilities, essential for their social inclusion. However, conventional wheelchairs often face significant limitations in narrow spaces and uneven terrains. The development of omnidirectional wheelchairs with suspension systems, as addressed in this work, is essential to tackle these challenges and offer greater independence to individuals with disabilities. These innovations can enhance quality of life by enabling access to previously inaccessible places and facilitating mobility in areas where, for example, sidewalks are deteriorated or nonexistent. The wheelchair was designed considering the challenges that conventional models face in terms of maneuverability and mobility in uneven terrains with small obstacles. The design process is briefly described, with a special focus on system requirements, conceptual design, hardware architecture, and the overall proposed design, along with the proposed control strategy. An analysis of the Mecanum-wheeled locomotion system when one of the wheels encounters an obstacle is also presented. It was concluded that the proposed design met the initial requirements, and that the suspension system allowed the wheelchair to navigate uneven terrains without experiencing significant changes in pitch or roll angles while keeping all four wheels in contact with the ground.