Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.

Panasonic Holdings Corporation

Motoki Hirose

Takayuki Nagata

Takeshi Ishikawa

Akio Shigekane

An electric wheelchair includes a main frame; a drivable wheel supported by the main frame; an electric motor disposed on the main frame and configured to drive the drivable wheel; a clutch configured to switch a power transmission path from the electric motor to the drivable wheel between an engagement state and a disengagement state; and a clutch operation handle configured to be moved in a predetermined range in an up-down direction. The clutch operation handle is configured to operate the clutch so as to be in: (i) one of the engagement state or the disengagement state when the clutch operation handle is stopped at a lowest position of the predetermined range; and (ii) the other of the engagement state or the disengagement state when the clutch operation handle is stopped at a highest position of the predetermined range.

Electric wheelchair

Provided is a self-position estimation apparatus capable of appropriately estimating a self-position of a mobile object regardless of an environment around the mobile object. The self-position estimation apparatus is for estimating a self-position of a mobile object, and includes: N types of sensors (where N is a natural number equal to or greater than two) that detect information with different contents from each other regarding a moving status of the mobile object; an environment determiner that determines an environment around the mobile object; a selector that selects information detected by one or more but less than the N types of sensors based on a determination result of the environment determiner; and an estimator that estimates the self-position of the mobile object based on the information selected by the selector.

Growing community of inventors

Osaka, Japan

Motoki Hirose