Path Following Controller for Gyroscopically Stabilized Single-Wheeled Robot

Path following controller, designed according to the principle of following a virtual robot, for a gyroscopically stabilized single-wheeled robot (gyrobot) is presented in this paper. Linear and angular velocities of the virtual robot are pre-computed such that it follows the desired path. These velocities also constitute the feed-forward component of the reference velocities for the gyrobot. The feedback components of the reference velocities are computed based on the error between the pose of virtual robot and that of the gyrobot. Besides the reference velocity generator, a controller is designed to make the single-wheeled robot follow the reference velocities. Conditions for stability of the single-wheeled robot are taken into consideration while designing the reference velocities. Effectiveness of the design is verified using different types of reference paths.