The Wheelbot: A Jumping Reaction Wheel Unicycle

New progress in the progress of actuators, sensors, and embedded controllers gives new prospects for robotics. A modern paper on arXiv.org focuses on nonlinearly-coupled, less than-actuated techniques, wherein the quantity of actuators is fewer than the range of degrees of independence.

The Wheelbot is a reaction wheel-driven unicycle
robotic that makes use of brushless motors to self-erect soon after toppling. Image credit rating: arXiv:2207.06988 [cs.RO]

Scientists propose Wheelbot, a modest unicycle robotic with two actuated wheels attached to a rigid system, with one particular rolling on the ground and the other performing as a reaction wheel. Its attribute characteristic is the symmetric layout with two wheels that can act as a reaction or rolling wheel based on the configuration.

The robot functions as a manage testbed for responsibilities these kinds of as balancing, driving, roll-up, or stand-up. Wheelbot is the initially unicycle robotic that can self-erect from any first place, get well from sizeable disturbances, and carries its have onboard ability provide.

Combining off-the-shelf components with 3Dprinting, the Wheelbot is a symmetric reaction wheel unicycle that can soar onto its wheels from any first placement. With non-holonomic and under-actuated dynamics, as properly as two coupled unstable degrees of liberty, the Wheelbot gives a demanding system for nonlinear and knowledge-driven command analysis. This paper presents the Wheelbot’s mechanical and electrical style and design, its estimation and command algorithms, as very well as experiments demonstrating the two self-erection and disturbance rejection although balancing.

Study short article: René Geist, A., Fiene, J., Tashiro, N., Jia, Z., and Trimpe, S., “The Wheelbot: A Jumping Response Wheel Unicycle”, 2022. Website link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2207.06988
Project web site: https://web-sites.google.com/view/wheelbot

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