Detection and control of a gyroscopically induced vibration to improve the balance of a single-wheel robot

Abstract

In this article, an experimental investigation of the detection of a gyroscopically induced vibration and the balancing control performance of a single-wheel robot is presented. The balance of the single-wheel robot was intended to be maintained by virtue of the gyroscopic effect induced from a highly rotating flywheel. Since the flywheel rotates at a high speed, an asymmetrical structure of a flywheel causes an irregular rotation and becomes one of the major vibration sources. A vibration was detected and suppressed a priori before applying control algorithms to the robot. Gyroscopically induced vibrations can empirically be detected with different rotational velocities. The detection of the balancing angle of the single-wheel robot was accomplished by using an attitude and heading reference system. After identifying the vibrating frequencies, a notch filter was designed to suppress the vibration at the typical frequencies identified through experiments. A digital filter was designed and implemented in a digital signal processor(DSP) along with the control scheme for the balance control performance. The performance of the proposed method was verified by the experimental studies on the balancing control of the single-wheel robot. Experimental results confirmed that the notch filter designed following the detection of the flywheel’s vibration actually improved the balancing control performance. A half of the vibration magnitude was reduced by the proposal.