Motion Control of the Parallel Bicycle-Type Mobile Robot Composed of a Triple Inverted Pendulum. 2nd Report: Driving Control.

Abstract

The authors have developed a parallel bicycle-type mobile robot which has a double controlling arm suspended from the upper end of its body and an articulated joint at the center of the body. This robot can change 1ts configuration by folding the body: therefore, it can be driven in the form of a bicycle or a four-wheeled vehicle. In the former. stability of the bicycle is attained by using the controlling arms. and in the latter. the controlling arms also touch the floor as well as the vehicle. In the previous paper. we reported the methods and experimental results on stability control together with ascending and descending stairs using arms and body cooperatively. In this paper, the control methods of driving with two wheels and experimental results on driving straight and turning are described. It is confirmed that the robot can be driven along an arbitrary path and stability control using the controlling arms is useful in driving control.