Development of a mobile inverted pendulum robot system as a personal transportation vehicle with two driving modes :TransBOT

In this paper, control of a mobile inverted pendulum robot system with the capability of carrying a human operator is developed and demonstrated. The feasibility test of `TransBot' as one of the balancing robot series in our research is presented. The balancing mechanism is used for a transportation vehicle where there are humps on the road and turning in the narrow space is required. The robot has two modes: One is a regular mobile robot mode such that stable contact (three or more point contact on the ground) is guaranteed. Another mode is the balancing mode that maintains stability with two point contact on the ground. Experimental studies of indoor and outdoor driving are conducted to make sure the feasibility of TransBOT.