Avoidance Control for a Personal Mobility Vehicle Considering Rider's Postural Stability and Movement Efficiency

Motivated by population aging and the diversification of short-distance travel, this study investigates how to ensure safe and comfortable use of personal mobility vehicles (PMVs) by addressing rider–vehicle postural stability. Standing-riding experiments were conducted to evaluate how handrail usage and lateral acceleration affect postural control. Using a handrail consistently reduced both the maximum center of pressure (COP) displacement and the peak ground reaction force during acceleration and deceleration phases. As lateral acceleration increased, a larger proportion of the rider’s body-weight support was shared by the handrail, indicating its stabilizing effect. Based on these empirical findings, a two-PMV avoidance simulation was implemented to explore cooperative avoidance strategies between riders with different postural stability levels. Three allocation schemes of lateral avoidance demand were compared: equal sharing, one-sided avoidance, and proportional sharing according to stability. The proportional sharing scheme achieved the best trade-off, maintaining movement efficiency while minimizing asymmetry in biomechanical load. Concentrating avoidance on a single rider, in contrast, increased physical strain. These results highlight the importance of cooperative burden sharing and proper handrail use in avoidance maneuvers, providing fundamental insight for the design of control algorithms and training methods that enhance the safety and comfort of PMV operation.