Trajectory tracking and balance control of an autonomous bikebot

Abstract

We present trajectory tracking and balance control of an autonomous bikebot. The bikebot is a single-track autonomous mobile robot that is designed to study unstable physical human-robot interactions. The controller is built on the property of the external-internal convertible (EIC) structure for the bikebot dynamics. We present two types of the designs and analyses of the control systems and also demonstrate their performance through extensive experiments. The comparison results with the human riding experiments show that the rider's motor skills generate the similar strategies as the proposed EIC-based balance control.