C157 Development of a Self Balancing Scooter

presented by

Toh Boon Heng Elvin

08 May 07

Scope
Objective What is a Self Balancing Scooter? Scope of Project Current Products Working Principle System Integration General Specifications Technical Specs & Costing Future Improvements Conclusions

Objective
To develop a self balancing scooter capable of transporting a single passenger motivation from a Segway Personal Transporter To learn and integrate the following aspects of engineering: Mechanical Electrical Electronics Dynamics & Control Programming

What is a Self Balancing Scooter?

What is a Self Balancing Scooter? A 2 wheel (axis-inline) powered vehicle that balances both rider and itself based on riders leaning action How does it balance? Sensors measure the pitching angle and rate Signals are sent to motors to drive them accordingly How does it steer? Steer by driving each wheel at different speeds (wheel-speed differential) Rider twists a bi-directional twist throttle grip (left hand) to control steer

Scope of Project
Design and fabrication of vehicle chassis Selection & Implementation of major components Motors, batteries, microcontroller, etc Development of control strategy Programming of microcontroller Integration of all other engineering details

Current Products
Segway Personal Transporter Regarded as a technological miracle commanding a price range of $7000~$10000 Various models Police, Cross Terrain, Commuter, Golf, etc

( Segway Inc)
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Working Principle
Inverted Pendulum Control When vehicle is tilted forward, move forward to catch up in order to balance

Working Principle
Vehicle + Rider Input Plant Controlled Variable (Tilt Angle)

Ref. Setpoint

Motors Control Element

Feedback Signal

Feedback Elements Gyro + Tilt Sensor

System Integration
Balance Control Strategy Proportionate Derivative Control Loop Pitch angle error Proportionate Gain added to signal output Pitch angle rate Derivative Gain added to signal output Combined signal output corresponds to each motor speed The more the lean, the faster the motors Steering Control Potentiometer mounted in twist throttle and fed back to controller To steer right, add a small amount (to signal output) to left motor, subtract the same amount to right motor Left motor now slightly faster than right motor

System Integration
Sensor Fusion Integrate the angular rate over time to obtain the current angle Angular rate gyro always drifts An accelerometer is used to measure the actual tilt (direction of gravity) of the vehicle Readings from tilt sensor is used to correct for the drift by the rate gyro Unable to use tilt sensor as it cannot read the fast changes of the vehicle (low bandwidth) Angular rate gyro can read the fast changes of the vehicle (high bandwidth)

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System Integration
Need to scale down voltage output (sensors) to fit within the input voltage range of microcontroller Basic Operation of Microcontroller Get sensor readings (gyro, tilt sensor and potentiometer) Check that angle is within safety range Compute signal output based on PD control loop Output signal to motor drivers (PWM signals) Restart entire cycle Entire process runs in series at approximately 130Hz Around 300 lines of code (C programming)

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General Specifications
Cruising speed: 13 km/h (based on 60% of motor rating) Weight: 28kg Battery range: 1.5 ~ 2 hours Tyre size: 20in diameter Platform height: 30cm Ground clearance: 15cm Vehicle width: 60cm Uphill capability: ~30degrees

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Technical Specs & Costing

2 x 1.2kW DC-Permanent Magnet Motors ($440 ea) 24 ~ 36V input range 24V x 9000mAh NiMH Batteries ($510) Rated up to 45A discharge 2 x Open Source Motor Controllers ($210 ea) H-Bridge Circuit rated up to 160A Angular Rate Gyro, Silicon Sensing Systems Japan ($200) Analogue voltage output (0.5~4.5V) Dual Axis Accelerometer (Tilt Sensor), Analog Devices ($100) Duty cycle output H8-300 9.8MHz 16bit Microcontroller (Renesas, Hitachi) (Loan) Total Cost: $3900
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Future Improvements
Better microcontroller Faster processor Faster signal processing Wireless debugging & data collection Fine tuning of control strategy To reduce and remove vibration during stops Computer simulations of actual vehicle Presence detection Proximity sensors on platform Display console Speed Battery levels Aesthetics
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Conclusions
Overall a steep learning curve on all aspects of system design and implementation Good understanding of system dynamics achieved A working prototype built from scratch that has achieved functionality according to target objective Commonly available technology is sufficient to build such a technological miracle A vehicle that is both fun to ride and highly educational in aspects of engineering

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