New players in intelligent transportation: Autonomous Segway in a dynamic environment

Abstract

This paper heralds a mathematical treatment of Segways as autonomous robots for personal transportation and deliveries and courier services in constrained dynamic environments from a bird’s-eye view. New velocity-based stabilizing controllers of an autonomous nonholonomic two-wheeled self-balancing personalized Segway robot are extracted from a total potential developed by employing the Lyapunov-based Control Scheme (LbCS) for navigation in a partially known environment. Velocity controllers’ cost and time effectiveness and efficiency result from the interaction of the three prominent pillars of LbCS: smoothest, shortest, and safest path for motion planning. Furthermore, the autonomous personal transporter has an obstacle avoidance sensor with a limited detection range ideal for fast navigation in dynamic environments with narrow corridors, tracks, and pathways. This also successfully facilitates navigation in a partially known environment where the sensors only receive and avoid static and dynamic obstacles in a limited range. The results are numerically validated, and the efficacy of the new controllers is exemplified via computer simulations, which illustrate the forward, backward, and zero-turn radius maneuvers of the Segway robot. Introducing the particular autonomous personal transporter would contribute to transportation systems of smart cities.