<div dir="ltr">This was created by Dean Kamen, i.e. Mr Segway. I expect it uses some of the control technology inherited from that project.<br><br>Presumably, like the segway, it uses one or multiple voting, optimal state space controller/s. <br>
<br>This is a level of stability and control not achievable with simplistic PID or Fuzzy controllers.<br><br>John<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Mon, Oct 20, 2008 at 1:34 AM, Charles Manning <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:cdhmanning@gmail.com">cdhmanning@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">Pretty neat.<br><br>I think there are a few things which really help keep this thing stable:<br>
<br>1) Moment of inertia. A heavy item placed relatively far from the wheels is far easier to balance than a light one. That's part of the reason Hanno has the batteries on the top of the pole of his robot . Having an object the size of a human helps.<br>
2) Relatively unlimited budget. Hanno is trying to make a cheap consumer item while these flash wheelchairs cost many thousands.<br><br><br>Some horizontal reference, typically accelerometers because they are small, cheap and reliable, need to be part of any gyro-based solution because gyro sensors give you the rate of rotation and you need a horizontal reference to cancel out any offset (normally done in a Kalman filter). If you don't cancel out this offset then the machine would seem to be slowly rolling.<br>
<font color="#888888">
<br>-- Charles</font><div><div></div><div class="Wj3C7c"><br><br><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Sun, Oct 19, 2008 at 5:23 PM, QtuTrains <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:Howard@qtutrains.com" target="_blank">Howard@qtutrains.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
If you think Hanno's balancing robot is interesting just take a look<br>
at this:<br>
<br>
<a href="http://www.powerchair-review.fsnet.co.uk/ibot-4000-transporter-full-" target="_blank">http://www.powerchair-review.fsnet.co.uk/ibot-4000-transporter-full-</a><br>
review.htm<br>
<br>
The manufacture's site is <a href="http://www.ibotnow.com/" target="_blank">http://www.ibotnow.com/</a> but I couldn't get<br>
it to respond when I looked.<br>
<br>
Its a wheelchair that can rise onto two wheels and balance with a<br>
person sat in it.<br>
<br>
It can also climb stairs!<br>
<br>
We saw one today at the Canterbury museum (not an exhibit!) and the<br>
owner said it was the only one in New Zealand.<br>
<br>
It looked amazingly stable - much less oscillation to keep upright<br>
than Hanno has achieved thus far. Naturally it uses gyroscopes for<br>
balance, perhaps accelerometers too but the owner wasn't too much<br>
into the technical details.<br>
<br>
The point of balancing is improved manoeuvrability and visibility<br>
through increased height which was obviously useful in the museum.<br>
<br>
Howard<br>
<br>
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