Velocity control realisation for a self-balancing transporter

Abstract

This study proposes the motion control design of a real self-balancing transporter (SBT) which is fabricated in the laboratory. Based on the system-on-a-programmable-chip (SoPC) developmental architecture, two controls are implemented to achieve the objectives of balanced standing and moving with a constant velocity for the SBT. Based on the Takagi–Sugeno (T–S) fuzzy model of the SBT, the parallel distributed compensation (PDC) controller is employed to achieve the mentioned controls. Then an extra Mamdani If–Then fuzzy rule base (FRB) is built to cooperate with the PDC control such that the SBT not only can stand with balance, but can also move forward with a desired constant velocity ‘quickly’. The maximum emphasis is that there is a novel idea in the design of the If–Then FRB which is the relationship between the moving velocity error and the desired inclination angle of the SBT. Owing to the aids of the extra If–Then FRB, the time of the controlled response to reach the desired state is obviously shortened. This is the significant contribution of the study. Finally, both the fuzzy PDC and the If–Then FRB are realised in the SoPC platform for the real SBT. The performance and merit of the proposed control scheme is exemplified by conducting computer simulations and practical experiments.