Development of a stair traversing two wheeled robot

Abstract

This paper presents a novel approach for stabilizing a two wheeled mobile robot while traversing down a stair terrain. During flight, the drive wheels of the mobile robot are used as control input to generate reaction torque to alter the pre-impact landing angle, ensuring a successful landing. A state dependent feedback control scheme is used for continuous step traversing while keeping the robot upright. Relationships between travel velocity, height of step and landing angle were investigated. The proposed approach was simulated using physics simulation engine and a physical prototype was constructed to confirm simulation findings. Results were compared with conventional two wheeled robot control scheme and effectiveness of proposed approach was confirmed.