[chbot] balancing robots

[Charles Manning]

Taller structures and those with the centre of mass further away from the 
wheels are way easier to balance. Increased angular inertia slows down the 
toppling, making the control way more stable and easier. It is easy to 
convince yourself of this:

Try balancing a pencil on its point on your hand. Very hard. 
Now try balancing a broom with the head on your hand and the stick pointing 
up. Easier.
Lastly try balancing a broom with the stick end in your hand and the head up. 
Way easier.

So it you're designing a balancing robot, consider putting a nice chunk of 
mass (eg the battery) at the top of the structure. That should make the 
balancing problem a lot easier to solve.

Far more impressing, IMHO, is
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JzeXfn-H6Q&feature=related
Small, very little overshoot, high acceleration. Much more challenging.


On Friday 26 March 2010 07:39:21 Mark Atherton wrote:
> <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxx14Xe2iNg>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
>bxx14Xe2iNg
>
>
>
> I assume everyone has seen the quite extraordinary Boston Dynamics
> BigDog
> <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1czBcnX1Ww>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
>W1czBcnX1Ww
>
>
>
>
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