A gyroscope-based inverted pendulum with application to posture stabilization of bicycle vehicle

This paper presents a new inverted pendulum system, whose core stabilizing device is designed based on gyroscopic precession effect. Traditional inverted pendulum system, such as inertia wheel pendulum, gains the required balance torque through the control over the acceleration and deceleration of inertia wheel. Considering the issues of the inefficiency, inflexibility and large capability required for motor driver of the traditional inverted pendulum system, the feature of the new inverted pendulum system possesses the advantages of simple structure, quick response, and high efficiency in control. The gyroscopic precession effect of high-speed gyroscopic rotor effectively provides a large torque to realize stable equilibrium of the new inverted pendulum system. Non-disturbance and disturbance balance experiments of the physical prototype and application of the stabilizing device to posture stabilization of bicycle vehicle are presented in this paper. The results showed that the stabilizing device responded quickly and realized stable equilibrium of the new inverted pendulum system efficiently. Besides, the consequence of application validated that the stabilizing device owns a strong anti-interference ability and a good applicability.