Feedback Control of a Balancing Robot

A major objective of FP7 LIREC project (Living with Robots and Interactive Companions) lies in designing a robotic companion that humans would accept and co-exist with over a longer period of time. A tentative construction of such a companion has been a robot mounted on board of a balancing mobile platform. In this paper we describe a prototype design of the balancing robot, derive a mathematical model of its kinematics and dynamics, and develop a robot controller. The controller synthesis is based on feedback decoupling and linearization of the robot dynamics. Performance of the controller has been tested by computer simulations of example problems of position and orientation tracking.