Dancing with a Powered Wheelchair Driven by Rim Motors and Music Tempo Recognition

This paper introduces wheelchair dancing with a powered wheelchair driven by dual-power wheels, each with a rim motor. The wheelchair was automatically controlled, for safety and fluidity, by compensating for multiple friction and gravitational-torque disturbances. The wheelchair was also trained smart to recognize music tempo in terms of beats per minute with 96% accuracy in 5 seconds. This automation allows dancers to wave their upper limbs freely and rhythmically with music, while the wheelchair is controlled to follow various choreographed dance steps.