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.

An augmented state feedback controller for a Wheeled Inverted Pendulum (WIP) is proposed in this research. The augmented state feedback controller is able to keep the WIP returning to the origin. Generally, the WIP has both stable and unstable equilibrium points. To keep the WIP over the unstable equilibrium point, the WIP consistently is being controlled. A simple state feedback controller is letting the WIP out of the origin when the center of gravity of the WIP locates out of the schematic center line. In some case of applications, it may not be desirable that the WIP is drifting out of the initial location. The proposed augmented state feedback controller is able to keep the WIP at the initial location whether its center of gravity lies out of the center line or not. Numerical simulations are carried out to show the validation of the augmented sated feedback controller.