Stationary balance control of a bikebot

We present the development of the gyroscopic-balanced control of an autonomous bikebot. The bikebot is an actively controlled bicycle-based robotic platform with a gyro-balancer developed to study human dynamic postural balance motor skills through unstable physical human-robot interactions. We also present a dynamic model and analysis for stationary bikebot. A nonlinear balancing controller is designed to stabilize the underactuated stationary bikebot on an orbital trajectory around the unstable equilibrium point that is coupled with another orbit of the actuated gyro-balancer. We then demonstrate the analysis and control design with experimental validations. Finally, we present a set of human riding experiments to show how the bikebot can be used to perturb and excite human sensorimotor feedback loop for dynamic postural balance motor skills.