Modeling, control and experimental verification on a two-wheeled vehicle with free inclination: An urban transportation system

Abstract This paper presents the results on the modeling and control of a two-wheeled prototype. The vehicle, named B2, like the Segway, is principally a self-balancing machine whose wheels share a common axis. However, the control objectives are different because the intended use of the two vehicles is different. The Segway behaves like an inverted pendulum (for example: when a driver leans forward, the Segway accelerates forward to prevent the passenger from falling), whereas the task of B2 will be to balance the occupants while rejecting the influence of the road and passengers. Thus, the passenger motion is a disturbance to be rejected. Furthermore, the B2 is intended as an alternative road vehicle and is not for use on sidewalks. Its goal is to reduce problems caused by vehicles in the center of towns (pollution, noise, use of the space). A Takagi–Sugeno fuzzy model has been developed from the prototype parameters. Some real-time robust PDC (Parallel Distributed Compensation) control laws with and without observers were realized in continuous time. A comparison with a linear law and robustness tests are presented. All of the final trials during the experiments were conclusive. In particular, the B2 was stabilized, and the speed followed the state point given by a joystick.