Traveling assistance device and traveling assistance control method

A traveling assistance control method for assisting traveling of a traveling tool in a traveling assistance device including

• a driving wheel supported by a device main body and configured to cause the device main body to travel,
• a speed acquisition unit configured to acquire information on a speed and an angular speed of the device main body,
• a connection portion connected to the traveling tool including a main body portion and a plurality of driven wheels supported by the main body portion and configured to receive a load applied to the traveling tool, and
• a driving force acquisition unit configured to acquire a driving force of the driving wheel,
• the traveling assistance control method comprising:
• a calibration process of calculating a frictional force of the driven wheel based on the driving force in a state where an external force is not applied to the traveling tool;
• and
• a finite state machine control process,
• wherein the finite state machine control process includes
• a driving control of executing a control such that the driving wheel travels with a driving force against the frictional force, and
• a stop control of executing a control such that the driving force of the driving wheel is zero, and
• the finite state machine control process
• transitions from the driving control to the stop control when a first condition is satisfied in the driving control, and
• transitions from the stop control to the driving control when a second condition is satisfied in the stop control.