Realization of a motion control IC for electric-powered wheelchair

Abstract

This work is mainly to implement a motion control IC for electric wheelchair based on the novel FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) technology, which a Nios ll soft core processor can be embedded into FPGA to construct an SoPC (System on a Programmable Chip) environment. This electric wheelchair herein is driven by two DC rim motors and a fuzzy controller is applied in speed loop of each motor drive to cope with the system uncertainty and external load problems. The motion control IC has two modules. One is Nios II processor IP (Intelligent properties) which is used to perform the function of motion trajectory for electric-powered wheelchair and the data communication with control panel; and the other is an application IP which is utilized to execute the function of PWM (Pulse width modulation) generation, QEP (Quadrature encoder pulse) signal detection, and speed loop fuzzy controller for two DC rim motors. Therefore, a fully digital motion controller for electric wheelchair can be realized within one FPGA chip. Finally, an experimental system, which is composed of the DE2 (CycloneII EP2C35F672C6) with FPGA basis, two inverters, and one platform for electric wheelchair, is set up to prove the efficiency and correctness of the proposed motion control IC.I.