Balancing and Control of a Two-Wheeled Vehicle using

LQR Control
Satwik Mohanty, 713EE3083, Department of Electrical Engineering

ABSTRACT RESULTS
Control of a two wheeled inverted pendulum system, is an arduous and
complicated task. As the system under question is asymptotically unstable
and under-actuated. The system being inherently non-linear in nature,
further convolutes the control problem. Countless control architectures have
been proposed and implemented for stabilization of an inverted pendulum
system. The MIPS considered here has 5- DOFs (pitch motion, yaw motion,
translation motion), so naturally the control effort that needs to be exerted
increases. Previously a linear quadratic regulator, coupled with a
proportionalintegral derivative (PID) controller was implemented to
control all the states of the system. Here the control law is simplified by
eliminating the use of a PID controller while still allowing yaw motion
control.
HARDWARE INTEGRATION
INTRODUCTION
The stabilization of an inverted pendulum has long been an intriguing problem for control engineers.
Its a classic control problem as the system is inherently unstable and non-linear. Numerous
controllers have been proposed to stabilize an inverted pendulum system. By linearizing the system
about its equilibrium point, linear controllers have also been implemented to attain stability to a high
level of accuracy. This Two Wheeled Inverted Pendulum (TWIP) is just an extension of the classic
problem of stabilizing an inverted pendulum with an added degree of freedom. Instead of being
constrained to move in a straight path to achieve stability about the equilibrium position, now the
body can undergo yaw motion. The system is also under actuated, while being nonlinear and In order to achieve the stability and control the motion of the MIPS, we have used
unstable. Before Dean Kamen commercialized the Two Wheeled Self Balancing Vehicle, there had
been considerable research on TWIP systems. In 1986, according to Japan Times, a two wheeled dsPIC33EP512M0810. 70 MIPS DSC core with enhanced on chip peripheral, made
inverted pendulum was built by Kazuo Yamafuzi, a Professor Emeritus at the University of Electro- dsPIC33EP512M0810 as ideal microcontroller to implement the control algorithm based
Communications in Tokyo. Equibot, developed by Dani Piponi, was also a mobile inverted pendulum
system which used sharp infra-red sensor to measure the distance to the floor and deduce the tilt on LQR. An inertial measurement unit (UM7) was used for sensing the pitch angle.
angle. nBot, another TWIP system was developed by David P. Anderson, used Inertial Measurement Quadrature Encoders were used to find the yaw angle and position of the TWIP by
Unit that implemented a filter to combine the two sensors, accelerometer and gyroscope, into a
CONCLUSION
single measurement. At the Industrial Electronics Laboratory at the Swiss Federal Institute of implementing path integration (dead reckoning).
Technology, a control system made up of two decoupled state-space controllers was implemented on

CONTROL ARCHITECTURE
the TWIP. Department of Signals and Systems, Chalmers University of Technology designed and
developed a self-balancing vehicle, using state feedback. They successfully implemented LQR control
to obtain stability. The aim of this project was to design and build a ride able, self-balancing two wheeled
vehicle. This aim has been achieved and an untethered scooter with on-board power
and control has been manufactured and successfully tested. A comprehensive literature
review was conducted, covering technical information relevant to the project. The
mathematical model of the bot was developed and then implemented along with the
LQR control system using MATLAB and Simulink. The Virtual Modelling Software,
Autodesk Inventor 2016, allowed the chassis to be visualised and modified efficiently
prior to manufacture. A formulated design approach was used to create the most
efficient and robust configuration of the bot to satisfy all the project goals and one
extension goal. The structural design was considered concurrently with component
selection, aesthetics, and ergonomics to minimise mechanical, electrical and rider
MATHEMATICAL MODELLING integration problems.

REFERENCES
The oscillator present on board provides 8 MHz clock source. But in order to operate the
microcontroller at the CPU speed of 40 MIPS, we need an oscillator of 80MHz frequency.
That was achieved by using the on chip PLL (Phase Locked Loop). The device was started
with the user selected oscillator source (RC oscillator-8MHz). Then clock switching was
enabled with PLL. After the PLL locked to the needed frequency, clock switching occurred.
For realizing LQR, the feedback gain matrix was computed but the gain matrix was
computed in continuous domain. Although it ensured the stability in continuous time
system, due to use of a digital controller, the system dynamics changed. The sampling
frequency must be high enough to ensure the validity of gain matrix to stabilize the
system. By rigorous MATLAB simulation, it was found that sampling frequency of 20Hz was
high enough to assure reasonable results without losing fidelity.