International Journal of Advanced Robotic Systems

Balanced Motions Realization

for a Mechanical Regulators Free
and Front-Wheel Drive Bicycle Robot
Under Zero Forward Speed

Regular Paper



Yonghua Huang
1,*
, Qizheng Liao
1
, Lei Guo
1
and Shimin Wei
1


1 School of Automation, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Beijing, China
* Corresponding author E-mail: huangyonghuaxj@sina.com

Received 21 Jun 2012; Accepted 28 May 2013

DOI: 10.5772/56701

2013 Huang et al.; licensee InTech. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative
Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use,
distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.


Abstract This paper focuses on a mechanical regulator
freeandfrontwheeldrivebicyclerobot.Wepresenta
scheme to achieve the robots trackstand motion and
circular motion under zero forward speed. In a
situation where the robots frontbar is locked at 90
degrees, a kinetic constraint about the rotating rate of
the frontwheel and the yawing rate of the frame is
derived. Using the constraint as a basis, we developed
a simplified model of two independent velocities for
the robot. The model suggests there is an under
actuated rolling angle in the system. Our control
strategy originates from the under actuated
characteristics of the robot system. Concretely, we
linearize the rolling angle of the frame and set the
bicycle robot to regulate its tilting by rotating the
frontwheel. In the trackstand motion, we control the
position and the rotational rate of the frontwheel; but
in the circular motion, only the rotational rate of the
frontwheel is strictly regulated. Both simulations and
physical experiments results show that our strategy is
effectiveforachievingthesetwomotions.
Keywords Bicycle Robot, Mechanical RegulatorFree,
FrontWheelDrive,TrackStandMotion,CircularMotion

1.Introduction
The bicycle robot (or the riderless bicycle) is a naturally
unstable system and the primary obstacle for its
functional realization is its unexpected falling over.
Traditionally there are two means to keep a bicycle
robotsbalance.

The first one uses additional mechanisms to stabilize the

bicycle robots body, called a regulatorbased mean. In
[1],theresearchersproposedanautonomousbicyclewith
two mechanical gyros. They believed when the gyros
spun in opposite directions, their gyroscopic torque, due
to the precession of the gyros, would counteract the
destabilizing torque due to the gravity force. In [2], the
researchers designed a movable load mass in their
unmanned bicycle. They suggested a control strategy. If
1 Yonghua Huang, Qizheng Liao, Lei Guo and Shimin Wei: Balanced Motions Realization for a Mechanical
Regulators Free and Front-Wheel Drive Bicycle Robot Under Zero Forward Speed
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Int. j. adv. robot. syst., 2013, Vol. 10, 317:2013

thebicyclefellleftorright,bydrivingtheloadmassright
or left correspondingly, the robot system can recover to
upright travel because its gravity centre has been
regulatedbytheloadmassmovement.Differingfromthe
mass design in [2], the researchers in [3, 4] focused on a
rotationalpendulumbalancerintheirwork.Theyinsisted
that, due to momentum conservation, the rotation of the
balanceroppositetothetiltingdirectioncouldgeneratea
regulating torque to compensate for the falling torque
inducedbythegravityforce.In[56],aprototypesultra
lowspeed standing is well performed. In [7], the
researcher presented two symmetric mechanical
regulators,namelyarotationalbarandflywheel,toadjust
his riderless bicycles leaning angle. He suggested the
advantage of his design: when the symmetric bar or
flywheel rotated, the bicycles mass distribution should
not be changed, thus it would be easier for his system to
maintain balance. In [8], the researchers also adopted a
flywheelregulatorintheirdesign,butwhatamazedusis
that they achieved their robots stable balance in a
physical experiment under zero velocity. The most
exciting example of flywheelbased bicycle robot may be
the Murata Boy robot in [9], because the robot can stand
still,trackacurveandclimbaslope,asifbymagic.

The second mean is a frontbarbased mean, which lacks

any type of mechanical regulators and depends on the
frontbarssteeringtobalancethewholebicyclebody,see
[1016].Particularly,inreference[1516],basedonalotof
physical experiments, the researchers argued that the
frontbars steering might be more efficient than
mechanical regulators in maintaining the bicycle robots
balance.In[17],peopleconcentratedonariderlessbicycle
in high speed running. They presented the idea that the
frontbars turning would exert decisive impacts on the
bicycles ability to maintain balance. In [1820], the
researchers argued that the frontforks turning can
regulatethebicyclerobotsleaningbystatefeedbackand
the turning magnitude depends on the robots running
velocity.Inparticular,in[18]alowerboundforbicycles
runningvelocitywasderived.Theystatedthat,aslongas
the bicycle robot ran faster than this bound, it can be
easilystabilized.In[2123],theresearchersachievedtheir
own robot prototypes balanced running in a short time
by using only the frontbars turning. In [24], the
researchers spent a lot of effort on the selfstability issue
for a riderless bicycle both in theoretical analyses and
physical experiments. Their work focused on passive
stability: their bicycle was not configured with any
actuators (e.g., a motor), so it kept balance by the
coupling dynamics of the body leaning to the handlebar
steering under the condition that there is a proper
forward speed (they described it as an initial forward
pushintheirpaper).Themostsignificantcontributionof
their work is that they presented a revolutionary view
thatneitherthegyroscopicprecessionofthefrontwheel,
nor the wheel contact trailing like a caster behind the
steer axis is necessary for the selfstability of a riderless
bicycle.

Adeficiencyinmechanicalregulatorbasedbicyclerobots
is that the regulators may somewhat increase the
complexityofthesystemsmechanismandcontrol,which
disagrees with the original intention of a simple design
forbicyclerobots.Anotherdisadvantagemaybethelack
ofafailsafecapability,i.e.,iftheextraregulatorsfail,the
robotswouldbedisabledfromtheirnormalworkdueto
their over dependence on the functional action of the
regulators. While for the frontbarbased bicycle robots,
the main problem may be that there is not sufficient
evidence to prove this kind of bicycle can perform the
same balanced motions as well as the regulatorbased
ones. At this time there are no research groups (using
theoretical analysis or experiment) who have ever
performed the trackstand motion and circular motion
without the use of mechanical regulators when the
bicyclerobotsrunsatzeroforwardspeed.

This paper deals with the trackstand and circular

motions of a mechanical regulatorfree bicycle robot
whenitssteeringislockedat90deg.Inthissituation,the
bicycleislikeaninvertedpendulumwithamovingbase
(a system of two degrees of freedom), where the base
moves in a circle and the pendulum is balanced by the
wheels rotation. We give a simplified model and a
modelbased controller for the systems trackstand
motion and circular motion. Both simulations and
physical experiments are introduced to validate the
feasibilityofourcontrolstrategy.

Our work provides a robust evaluation of the self

balanced capability of the mechanical regulatorfree
bicycle robots when they run at zero forward speed. As
an extension, the results can also improve the regulators
failsafeabilityforregulatorbasedbicyclerobots.
2.Dynamicmodel
Our work focuses on a frontwheel drive robotic bicycle,
whichdoesnotcontainmechanicalregulators.Thetarget
systemanditskinematicrelationshipareshowninFig.1.

We focus on the robots trackstand and circular motions

under zero forward speed, so we only consider the case
that the frontbar is locked at 90 degrees. Figure 1(b)
illustratestheCartesiancoordinatesofthebicyclerobot:

1 2 3
O e e e is the global coordinate system, which is
fixedontheground

(1) (1) (1)

1 1 2 3
O e e e is the coordinate system of the frame
anditsoriginistherearwheelsgeometriccentre

(2) (2) (2)

2 1 2 3
O e e e is the coordinate system of the rear
wheelanditsoriginisthesameas
(1) (1) (1)
1 1 2 3
O e e e
2 Int. j. adv. robot. syst., 2013, Vol. 10, 317:2013 www.intechopen.com

-
(3) (3) (3)
3 1 2 3
O e e e is the coordinatesystemof the front
bar and its origin is the intersection point of the
framesaxisandthefrontbarsaxis
-
(4) (4) (4)
4 1 2 3
O e e e is frontwheels coordinate system
andtheoriginisitsgeometriccentre

(a)

(b)
Figure 1. Prototype and its schematic diagram of a frontwheel
drive bicycle robot, which is free of mechanical regulators.
(a)Experimentalprototypeconfiguration.(b)Schematicdiagram
andcoordinatesettingsofthebicyclerobot.
We suppose the bicycle robot runs on a level ground,
thustheframesangularvelocityvectorcanbegivenas

(1) (1)
B1 2 1 1 3
q q = + e e (1)
As shown in Fig.1(b), plane
(4) (4)
2 3
e oe coincides with
plane
(1) (1)
1 3
e oe ,forthisreason,thefrontwheelsangular
velocitycanbecalculatedas

(4)
B4 B1 6 2
q = + e ,(2)
Thefrontwheelisassumedtorunonthegroundwithout
slipping,sothevelocityof
4
O isgivenas
B4 B4 1
u = r
(
1
r isthepositionvectorof
B
P in
(4) (4) (4)
4 1 2 3
O e e e ).Onthe
other hand,
4
O is assumed to rotate around the
A
P
vertical line, so we also have
B4 B1 2
u = r (
2
r is the
position vector of
4
O in
(1) (1) (1)
1 1 2 3
O e e e ). From the two
expressions, we can obtain
1 2 6
q Aq Bq = + ( A and B are
functions of the systems geometric parameters). As a
summary, we can represent
B1
,
B4
and
B4
by
2
q
and
6
q .

The systems kinetic energy

k
E can be divided into two
parts:
k1
E and
k2
E ,whicharerepresentedas

T
k1 B1 1 B1
T T
k2 B4 2 B4 B4 2 B4
E / 2
E ( M ) / 2

= +

J
J
(3)
where
1
J is the inertial matrix of the combination solid
madeoftheframe,rearwheelandfrontfork;
2
M and
2
J
denote the mass and inertial matrix of the frontwheel,
respectively.

Inthepreviousanalysis,westatedthat
1
q isafunctionof
2
q and
6
q . For this reason, the systems total kinetic
energy
k
E can also be explicitly calculated from
2
q and
6
q .

We assume the frontbars turning cannot change the

masscentreheightofthesystem,soitspotentialenergyis
givenas

p 1 2
E M ghcosq = .(4)
where
1
M denotes the total mass of the combination
solidmadeoftheframe,rearwheelandfrontbar.

By substituting the kinetic and potential energy into the

Lagranges equation, we can obtain the systems
dynamicsas
+ = Mq F ,(5)
where M isthesystemsinertialmatrix, F relatestothe
Coriolis and gravity force, is the joint driving torque,
q isthesystemsangularaccelerationand
11 12
21 22
M M
M M
(
=
(

M
1
2
F
F
(
=
(

F
2
6
q
q
(
=
(

q

0
t
(
=
(


where
ij
M and
i
F ( i, j 1, 2 = ) are the quantities which
relatetosystemskineticparametersand
2 2
11 1 2 2 2 3
M 2(Z cos q Z sin q Z ) = + + ,
2 2
12 21 4 2 5 2 6
M M (Z cos q Z sin q Z ) = = + + ,
2 2
22 7 2 8 2 9
M 2(Z cos q Z sin q Z ) = + + ,
2 2
1 2 2 1 2 2 7 2 8 2 6
F (Z sin2q Z sin2q )q (Z sin2q Z sin2q )q = +
3 Yonghua Huang, Qizheng Liao, Lei Guo and Shimin Wei: Balanced Motions Realization for a Mechanical
Regulators Free and Front-Wheel Drive Bicycle Robot Under Zero Forward Speed
www.intechopen.com

1 2
M ghsinq ,
2
2 5 2 4 2 2 8 2 7 2 2 6
F (Z sin2q Z sin2q )q (Z sin2q Z sin2q )2q q = +
2
1 zz1
Z J A / 2 = ,
2
2 yy1
Z J A / 2 = ,
3 xx1
Z (J F) / 2 = + ,
4 zz1
Z J AB = ,
5 yy1
Z J AB = ,
6
Z G = ,
2
7 zz1
Z J B / 2 = ,
2
8 yy1
Z J B / 2 = ,
9
Z H / 2 = ,
A Bcoso = ,
2 2 1 1
B R / (L L 2R sin ) o = + ,
C cos Asin o o = + , D Bsin 1 o = + , E Acos sin o o = ,
2 2 2 2
yy4 zz4 4
F J C J E M R C = + + ,
2
yy4 zz4 4
G J CD J EA M R CD = + + ,
2 2 2 2
yy4 zz4 4
H J D J A M R D = + + .
Equation(5)showsthebicyclerobotisanunderactuated
system, which only contains two independent velocities.
Eq. (5) also demonstrates that the rolling angle of the
frameistheunderactuateddegreeoffreedom.
3.Controllerforbalancedmotions
According to [25], one cannot linearize all the degrees of
freedom of an underactuated system just by state
feedback, so we use partial feedback linearization to
developourcontrollers.

First, we solve the first formula of Eq. (5) to derive the

expression of
6
q and substitute the result (
6
q ) into the
secondformula.Second,weemploy

11 1
21 22 22 2
12 12
M F
(M M )v M F
M M
t = + ,(6)
where v isanewlyintroducedvirtualcontrolvariable.

Inthetrackstandmotion,weset
d d d d d
2 d 2 2 p 2 2 1 6 6 2 6 6
v q k (q q ) k (q q ) k (q q ) k (q q ) = + + + +
(
*
k is the statefeedback coefficient). By setting variables
d
1 2 2
q q = ,
d
2 2 2
q q = ,
d
1 6 6
q q q = and
d
2 6 6
q q q = , we can get the systems affine equation
fromEq.(5)as
( ) ( )v = + x f x g x , = y Cx (7)
where
T
1 2 1 2
q q ( =

x ,
T
1 1
q ( =

y ,
4 1
( )

( = -

f x
4 1
( )

( = -

g x ,
1 0 0 0
0 0 1 0
(
=
(

C .
Next, we discuss our control systems stability. From Eq.
(7),wegetitsJacobinmatrixattheequilibriumpoint:
p d 2 1
0 1 0 0
k k k k
( )
0 0 0 1
w 0 0 0
(
(

c
(
=
(
c
(
(

x=0
x x
x

where
1 4 6
w M gh / (Z Z ) 0 = + > .

ThesecularequationoftheJacobinmatrixisdescribedas

4 3 2
d p 1 2
D(s) s k s k s wk s wk 0 = + + + + = (8)
where w is the quantity, which relates to the systems
physical parameters (mass, moment of inertia etc.) and
thefrontbarsfixedturningangle.

According to the algebraic stability criterion, the

necessary and sufficient conditions of stability for the
system of Eq. (7) can be described as that all the
coefficients in Eq. (8) are positive and satisfy the
relationship:

2
d p 1 d 2 1
k k wk k k / k > .(9)
Obviously,thesystemsstabilityrelatestothecoefficients
d
k ,
p
k ,
1
k
2
k andthesystemphysicalparameters( w ).

Figure2depictsthestructureofthecontroller.
22 2 11 2
21 2
12 2
( ) ( )
( )
( )
M q M q
M q
M q

22 2 1 2 2 6
2 2 2 6
12 2
( ) ( , , )
( , , )
( )
M q F q q q
F q q q
M q

p
k
d
k
1
k
2
k
E
E
E
E
E E 2
q
2
q
6
q
6
q
2
d
q
2
d
q
6
d
q
6
d
q
2
d
q
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+

v t

Figure2.Thestructureofthecontrollerfortrackstandmotion
In the circular motion, we should not regulate the front
wheelsangleposition,soweset

d d d d
2 d 2 2 p 2 2 6 6
v q k (q q ) k (q q ) k(q q ) = + + + .(10)
Finally, we also formulated the necessary and sufficient
conditionofstabilityforacircularmotionas

d p
k , k , k 0 > &
d p 1
k k w k 0 > (11)
4.Controlsimulations
Table 1 shows the physical parameters that are used in
our simulations. We obtain the parameters from the
estimates of a virtual bicycle prototype in Solidworks
rather than the parameter identification of our physical
4 Int. j. adv. robot. syst., 2013, Vol. 10, 317:2013 www.intechopen.com

prototype, but they are still used in our following

prototypeexperiments.

Physicalmeanings Sym value

Heightofmasscentre(m) h 0.4
Frontbarsoffsetangle() 20
Rearwheelsradius(m)
1
R 0.17
Distancebetweenmasscentre
andfrontwheelscentre(m)
1
L 0.38
Distancebetweenmasscentre
andrearwheelscentre(m)
2
L 0.51
Totalmassofframe,rearwheelandfrontbar
(kg)
1
M 14.12
Massofthefrontwheel(kg)
4
M 0.73
Inertiamomentoftheassemblyoftheframe,
rearwheelandfrontbarofxaxis(kgm
2
)
xx1
J 0.306
Inertiamomentoftheassemblyoftheframe,
rearwheelandfrontbarofyaxis(kgm
2
)
yy1
J
2.586
Inertiamomentoftheassemblyoftheframe,
rearwheelandfrontbarofzaxis(kgm
2
)
zz1
J 1.796
Inertiamomentoffrontwheelofyaxis(kgm
2
)
yy4
J
0.0084
Inertiamomentoffrontwheelofzaxis
(kgm
2
)
zz4
J 0.0049
Table1.Physicalparameters
We considered the necessary and sufficient conditions of
stabilityofthecontrollerinEq.(9)andEq.(11)andsetthe
statesfeedbackcoefficientsas:

Trackstandmotion
p
k 80 ,
d
k 20 ,
1
k 3.26 ,
2
k 1.52
Circularmotion
d
k 80 ,
p
k 20 , k 5.56
The simulations were performed in Matlab/Simulink. At
thebeginning,wesetthesystemleaningwithanoffsetof
0.13 rad. Figure 3 shows theresults of the twosimulated
experiments.

FromFig3wehave:

Trackstandmotion

The bicycle is initially set to tilt at 0.13 rad. Under the

regulation of the controller, the tilting decays
exponentially, and after four seconds, it gets to and
remains in an upright position of 0 rad (Fig.3(a)). The
frontwheelrunsquicklytothepositionof4.1radwithin
0.4 seconds of the beginning, and then smoothly back
downtoitsinitialpositionof0rad.Thedrivingtoqueof
the frontwheel also exponentially decreases with the
maximumstartingvalueof14.63Nm(Fig.3(b)),whichis
accessibleforanormalDCmotor.

Circularmotion

The bicycle is also initially set to tilt at 0.13 rad. When the
controlleracts,thetiltingbeginsexponentiallydecaying,and
two seconds later, it converges to the anticipated 0.034 rad
(Fig.3 (c)). At the beginning, the frontwheel runs quickly
with a rotational rate of 13 rad/s. After two seconds, the
rotational rate decays to the preset 9.42 rad/s. The
maximum frontwheel driving torque is 7.5 Nm (Fig.3(d)).
ThistorquecaneasilybeprovidedbyanormalDCmotor.

Inconclusion,thetwosimulatedexperimentsvalidatethe
effectivenessofourcontrolstrategy.

(a)(b)

(c)(d)
Figure 3. Results of the two simulated experiments. (a) Tilting
angle of the frame and rotational angle of the frontwheel in
trackstand motion. (b) Driving torque of the frontwheel in
trackstand motion. (c) Tilting angle of the frame and rotational
rateofthefrontwheelincircularmotion.(d)Drivingtorqueand
rotationalangleofthefrontwheelincircularmotion.
5.Prototypeexperiments
ADSPbasedprototype,calledBYBRI,isdevelopedwith
1.2m length, 0.7cm height and 23kg weight. Figure 4
depictsthehardwareconfigurationofitscontrolsystem.

Figure4.Configurationoftheautonomousdrivingsystem
0 1 2 3 4 5
-0.2
-0.1
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
t/s
q
2
/
r
a
d

0 1 2 3 4 5
-4
-2
0
2
4
6
t/s
q
6
/
r
a
d
q
2
q
6
0 1 2 3 4 5
-10
-5
0
5
10
15
t/s

/
N

m
0 1 2 3 4 5
0
0.05
0.1
0.15
t/s
q
2

/
r
a
d

0 1 2 3 4 5
0
5
10
15
t/s
d
q
6
/
(
r
a
d
/
s
)
q
2
dq
6
0 1 2 3 4 5
-4
-2
0
2
4
6
8
t/s

/
N

m

0 1 2 3 4 5
0
20
40
60
t/s
q
6
/
r
a
d

q
6
(3P) (2P)
5 Yonghua Huang, Qizheng Liao, Lei Guo and Shimin Wei: Balanced Motions Realization for a Mechanical
Regulators Free and Front-Wheel Drive Bicycle Robot Under Zero Forward Speed
www.intechopen.com

Thedevelopedprototypeprimarilyconsistsoffiveparts:
Controlunit(DSP+sensors)
Communicationunit(wirelessmodules)
Support(aluminiumalloy+steel)
Actuationunit(DCservomotors)
Accessories(batteries,auxiliarywheels)

The prototype is compact, thus the DSPbased control

board, the wireless module, most of the sensory devices
andthebatteriesareallattachedtotheprototypesframe.
Two DC servomotors are mounted on the frontwheels
joint and the frontbars joint. Via gear reducers, the two
motorscaneasilydrivethefrontwheelandfrontbar.To
prevent the robot from falling over and damaging the
costly devices, a pair of auxiliary wheels are installed on
thetwosidesoftherobot,whichare15cmfromthefloor
whenitstandserectly.

WeusetwoDSPs(TMS320F28335andTMS320F2812)and
aMCU(C8051F020)asthecorecontrollersinoursystem.
Asforthesensorsgroup,anIMU(InertialMeasureUnit)
sensor and three encoders are used to detect the current
posture and rotational rate of the system. In addition, a
total of three supersonic sensors and a pair of current
sensors are introduced for detecting extended obstacles
and monitoring the motors current, respectively. Since
thebicyclerobotmayrunquicklyoveralongdistanceon
theground,weuseapairofwirelessmodulestotransmit
the recent states and control data between the host
computer and the bicycle robot. Among the short
distance onboard microprocessors, we designed a CAN,
SPIandSCIbustoexchangedata.

In Fig. 4, we can see there are four CPUs in the control

system.Wedividedthesystemintothreehierarchies:

thefirstoneisthehostcomputer,whichmanagesthe
strategicdecisionandmonitorstherobotsstate.
the secondone is the two DSPs, which perform data
acquisitionandcontrolalgorithmcalculation.
The last one is the MCU, which deals with the two
jointcontrolmotors.

Thenormalworkingprocedureofthecontrolsystemcan
besummarizedinfoursteps:
Step 1: TMS320F28335 sends a requirement message
ofsensorsdatatransmittingtoTMS320F2812
Step 2: TMS320F2812 receives the requiring message
andthenreturnsthelatestsensorsdatatoF28335
Step 3: Based on the received data, TMS320F28335
calculates the controlled variables and then sends
them to C8051F020. Furthermore, the controlled
variables together with the sensors data are also
transferredtothehostcomputer.
Step 4: C8051F020 generates driving signals
accordingtothecontrolquantitiesthatdrivethetwo
motors

Our prototype experiments also use the estimated

physical parameters shownin Table 1.In addition, using
the tuned feedback coefficients in simulated experiments
asthebasis,weresetthecontrolparametersas

Trackstandmotion
p
k 80
d
k 10
1
k 0.51689
2
k 0.6338
Circularmotion
p
k 140
d
k 20 k 1.7168
Thecontrolsamplingrateforoursystemis30Hz.

Figure5.Snapshotofthetrackstandmotionphysicalexperiment
6 Int. j. adv. robot. syst., 2013, Vol. 10, 317:2013 www.intechopen.com

Figure6.Snapshotofthecircularmotionphysicalexperiment

(a)(b)

(c)(d)
Figure7.Resultsofthetwophysicalexperiments.(a)Tilting
angleoftheframeandrotationalangleofthefrontwheelin
trackstandmotion.(b)Drivingtorqueofthefrontwheelin
trackstandmotion.(c)Tiltingangleoftheframeandrotational
rateofthefrontwheelincircularmotion.(d)Drivingtorqueand
rotationalangleofthefrontwheelincircularmotion.
Figure 5 Figure 7 demonstrate the experimental results
of the prototypes trackstand motion and circular
motion.

From Fig. 5, we can see that the bicycle robot performs

thetrackstandmotionforlongerthan10seconds.

Figure6showstherobotstablyrunsonacircletrajectory
withaperiodofabout12seconds.

As seen in Fig. 7(a), the frontwheel runs back and forth

in a range of 0.9 rad and in response, the frame swings
leftandrightinarangeoflessthan0.06rad.Figure7(b)
showsthatthedrivingtoqueofthefrontwheelreaches9
Nm at the beginning, and fluctuates around 0 Nm the
rest of the time. Figure 7(c) indicates that the rotational
rateofthefrontwheelandtherollingangleoftheframe
quickly converge and stay within a small range of their
individual value. Figure 7(d) shows that the driving
toqueofthefrontwheelrunsaround1.8Nmratherthan
0 Nm. This is due to the influences of the joint friction
andthegroundfriction.

In summary, we believe that, with the proposed motion

controllers, the target system achieves stablebalanced
track stand motion and circular motion under zero
forwardspeed.
6.Conclusionsandfuturework
The trackstand motion and circular motion are two
kinds of special balanced motions for a mechanical
regulatorfree and frontwheel drive bicycle robot
because there is no forward speed in the two cases. We
presentasimplifiedmodelandamodelbasedcontroller
for the robotto realizethe two motions. Our modelcan
excellently symbolize the coupling dynamics of our
target system with two independent angular velocities
andanunderactuateddegreeoffreedom.Ourbalanced
controller is characterized with a simple structure so it
can be easily used by our prototypes control system.
Through simulations and physical experiments, we
validated that our bicycle robot can successfully attain
the two considered motions with the proposed
controllers.
Our work reenforces the concept that the bicycle robots
canmaintainbalancewithoutany mechanicalregulators.
In addition, our methods can be generalized for fault
tolerance control of the mechanical regulatorbased
bicycle robots when they suffer from regulator
malfunction.

One limitation in our work is that most of the physical

parameters used in our experiments, e.g., the mass and
the moment of inertia, are obtained from estimations,
0 20 40 60 80
-0.06
-0.03
0
0.03
0.06
t/s
q
2
/
r
a
d

0 20 40 60 80
-1.2
-0.6
0
0.6
1.2
t/s
q
6
/
r
a
d
q
2
q
6
0 20 40 60 80
-10
-5
0
5
10
t/s

/
N

m
0 10 20 30 40
-0.01
0
0.01
0.02
0.03
0.04
0.05
t/s
q
2
/
r
a
d

0 10 20 30 40
-1
0
1
2
3
4
5
t/s
d
q
6
/
(
r
a
d
/
s
)
q
2
dq
6
0 10 20 30 40
-2
0
2
4
6
t/s

/
N

m

0 10 20 30 40
0
25
50
75
100
t/s
q
6
/
r
a
d

q
6
7 Yonghua Huang, Qizheng Liao, Lei Guo and Shimin Wei: Balanced Motions Realization for a Mechanical
Regulators Free and Front-Wheel Drive Bicycle Robot Under Zero Forward Speed
www.intechopen.com

therefore, it is difficult to choose suitable controller

parameters even by referring to the derived theoretical
stabilityconditions.Forthisreason,thedevelopmentofa
controller parameters self tuning strategy should be the
nextworktobeconsidered.
7.Acknowledgements
Our work is funded by National Natural Science
Foundation of China (Grant No. 61105103) and Beijing
Natural Science Foundation (Grant No. 4132032).
Additionally, we would like to express our appreciation
toDr.YuanSongforthehelpwithphysicalexperiments.
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9 Yonghua Huang, Qizheng Liao, Lei Guo and Shimin Wei: Balanced Motions Realization for a Mechanical
Regulators Free and Front-Wheel Drive Bicycle Robot Under Zero Forward Speed
www.intechopen.com