Design and Analysis of an Intelligent Toilet Wheelchair Based on Planar 2DOF Parallel Mechanism with Coupling Branch Chains

Abstract

Due to the fixed size of the structure or the possibility of only simple manual adjustment, the traditional toilet wheelchair cannot easily be adapted to the size of the user or the toilet. In this paper, a planar two-degree-of-freedom parallel mechanism with coupling branch chains is proposed to enable both seat height adjustment and body posture adjustment of a toilet chair, solving the problems of posture adaptability between the user and the machine, and height matching in the process of using the wheelchair-assisted toilet. The model of the parallel mechanism was designed after analyzing the general rules of posture transformation in the human body before and after the toilet process, and the dimensions of each linkage were then determined according to the constraint conditions. By analyzing the degree of freedom, kinematics, workspace, singularity and position of the center of gravity, the rationality of the design was ensured. The weighted average function was used to find the optimal fixed point of the horizontal moving slider, and the actual trajectory at the end of the single driving mode was close to the ideal trajectory. The experimental results show that the adjustable seat height range is 290~550 mm and the adjustable angle range is 0~90°, which can enable disabled people to use the toilet independently.