DYNAMICS AND CONTROL OF A SPHERICAL ROLLING ROBOT EQUIPPED WITH A GYRO

In this paper, we propose a new driving mechanism for a spherical rolling robot and investigate the dynamic characteristics of the robot by theoretical analysis and numerical simulations. The spherical robot has a momentum wheel(gyro) that rotates at a large velocity inside the robot, and its mechanism may be expected to provide the driving force efficiently. However, the dynamics of the robot is very complex because of the angular momentum of the gyro. We derive the equations of motion for the spherical robot that include the effects of frictional forces, and perform numerical simulations in order to examine the behavior of the robot.