Wheeled inverted pendulum (WIP) systems provide agile motion and energy-efficient locomotion through the wheels. However, they suffer from undesirable wheel motion for the acceleration and change of friction by the surface conditions. This paper presents a wheeled inverted pendulum with a fan (WIPF) that incorporates a fan thrust for the additional force for the control of traditional WIP systems. The WIPF is fully actuated by the wheel torque and the fan thrust, enabling the system to achieve enhanced balancing. The dynamics of the proposed system are analyzed and modeled for the control of the system with a linear quadratic regulator (LQR). The performance and characteristics of the WIPF are studied by simulations and experiments. WIPF showed enhanced balancing in step response for a desired position and improved impact robustness. Moreover, it achieved simultaneous control of the wheel position and body tilt angle, which is not attainable in traditional WIP systems.

• 김도현(Department of Mechanical System Engineering, Jeonbuk National University) | Dohyeon Kim
• 정영태(Department of Mechanical System Engineering, Jeonbuk National University, Jeonju) | Yeongtae Jung Corresponding author