Stabilization and control of the motion of a rolling disk by using two overhead rotors (Q1568742)

The authors studied the stabilization of a system which is composed of a disk rolling on a plane, a controlled slender rod that is pivoted through its center of mass about the disk's center and two overhead rotors fixed in the upper part of the rod. The rod is controlled in such a manner that it is aligned along the center of the disk and the point of contact between the disc and the plane. The upper rotor rotates in a plane that passes through the disc's axis and the rod, whereas the lower rotor rotates in a plane that is perpendicular to the rod. The equations of motion of this nonlinear non-holonomic system are Lagrange equations of the second kind with multipliers. The Lagrange multipliers are identified with constraints reactions. By using the inverse dynamics control, one gets the torques applied to each of the two rotors and the torque which is applied to the pedaling mechanism in the such manner that the disk's inclination will be stabilized about its vertical position, while simultaneously controlling the disk's speed and direction when asymptotically tracking any given smooth ground trajectory. The inverse dynamic control compensates the inertia forces and separates the kinematics from the dynamics.