The Design and Development of a Dynamic Model of a Low-Power Consumption, Two-Pendulum Spherical Robot

This article discusses the design, development, and energy consumption of a power-efficient spherical robot. The boosted performance of the robot is due to the separation between the lateral and longitudinal motions. This two-pendulum Innovative Spherical Robot (ISR) is 11% more energy efficient than those of similar one-pendulum models. The complex and nonlinear dynamic model of this nonholonomic robot is accurately derived by employing the Euler–Lagrange method from three considered points of masses. By resorting to experimental tests, the results of the dynamic models simulations are presented and verified. Through some carefully designed and carried-out experiments, the maneuverability of the ISR is demonstrated. Some specific curvature lanes are devised to measure the energy consumption of the model. As indicated by the experimental results, the maximum cruise time obtained by the ISR is 220 min, which means 7 km range that suggests an appreciable ability for the long-term runs.