A Dynamically Stable Single-Wheeled Mobile Robot with Inverse Mouse-Ball Drive
Abstract
Multi-wheel statically-stable mobile robots tall enough to interact meaningfully with people must have low centers of gravity, wide bases of support, and low accelerations to avoid tipping over. These conditions present a number of performance limitations. Accordingly, we are developing an inverse of this type of mobile robot that is the height, width, and weight of a person, having a high center of gravity, that balances dynamically on a single spherical wheel. Unlike balancing 2-wheel platforms which must turn before driving in some direction, the single-wheel robot can move directly in any direction. We present the overall design, actuator mechanism based on an inverse mouse-ball drive, control system, and initial results including dynamic balancing, station keeping, and point-to-point motion.
BibTeX
@conference{Lauwers-2006-9475,author = {Tom Lauwers and George A. Kantor and Ralph Hollis},
title = {A Dynamically Stable Single-Wheeled Mobile Robot with Inverse Mouse-Ball Drive},
booktitle = {Proceedings of (ICRA) International Conference on Robotics and Automation},
year = {2006},
month = {May},
pages = {2884 - 2889},
}