Forward and backward motion control of Personal riding-type wheeled Mobile Platform

We propose a new concept in personal vehicles called the 'Personal riding-type wheeled Mobile Platform (PMP)' consisting of two wheels and a standing base for a human. The two wheels are driven independently, and traveling and steering is achieved by simply changing the relative position of the rider's center of gravity (COG) on the base. The vehicle has two merits: reducing the total weight of the simple structure and saving space by not using a steering unit. In this paper, the mechanism of the first prototype, PMP-1, is introduced and its posture stabilizing and running control methods are proposed. The effectiveness of the posture stabilization control methods is demonstrated in computer simulations and human riding experiments. In the running control method, maneuverability by movement of the rider's COG is also investigated experimentally. The results demonstrate that the posture of the rider can be maintained and the velocity of forward and backward traveling can be controlled according to the rider's intentions.