Comments on: diy balancing robot rocks, rolls, then falls

By: bebo skinz

bebo skinz — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 23:59:13 +0000

cool would love one of these bad boys!

By: RyanB

RyanB — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 21:21:12 +0000

@ Mitra — Yes, I agree, the control system is still not yet tuned. Assuming the torque of the motor is high enough, and the response is quick enough, this could be made more stable. Even a notable delay in response time could potentially be overcome with critical dampening and a high enough torque.

The fact that this little guy is top heavy is actually a benefit since that means the center of gravity is high and the robot will pivot around that point. It should be much easier to maintain balance with this design, than if the batteries were housed closer to the wheels.

By: Mitra

Mitra — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 15:57:59 +0000

My guess is that the robot overcompensates rendering it dynamically unstable. Perhaps reducing the proportional response constant(’k’ from simple control theory) in the control circuit could help.
Of course it could be a problem with the response time of the circuit/motor.

By: ZIM

ZIM — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 15:34:58 +0000

It needs a gyro.

By: mike

mike — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 09:10:06 +0000

I suspect you could make one that balanced just fine. The key issues would be the:
- control system (which ‘order’ the control loop is; analog rather than simple on/off motor control (that this one looks like))
- motor characteristics - specifically torque and how rapidly it can change directions

I would hope someone else looks at this one and whips one up to show it is quite possible.

By: Bebo skinz

Bebo skinz — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 23:50:27 +0000

Thats cool as anything, its a shame that it will always eventually fall. The delay in thinking time means that it will always progressively get more out of balance. Really like it through, great robot.