Two Wheeled Robotic Machine with an Extended RodPaperback, 23 August 2011

The nature of a two-wheeled vehicle poses several interesting control questions. Industrial applications of such vehicles will arise to a great extent in the coming few years; for instance, material handling in narrow paths and assistive technologies. This book investigates modelling and control of a novel design of a two wheeled vehicle with additional mobility feature along its intermediate body. It is considered to be the first in investigating a two wheeled vehicle with such configuration, associated uncertainties and dynamic behaviour of the attached payload. As far as the system of two wheeled robotic machine is concerned, incorporating a linear actuator to the IB of two wheeled vehicles has not addressed in literature before. An range of investigation of certain parameters on the stability of the system is carried out in this book. The impact of a set of varying parameters on the capability of the control strategies and the system behaviour are considered. The capability of the control approaches is investigated in dealing with various sources of uncertainties in terms of internally and externally varying dynamics of the vehicle while ensuring the system stability.