Modelling and control of a non‐holonomic pendulum‐driven spherical robot moving on an inclined plane: simulation and experimental results

Abstract

This study deals with mathematical modelling and motion control of a pendulum‐driven spherical robot (PDSR) moving on an inclined plane. Firstly, the model of a PDSR on an inclined plane is developed using a Lagrangian formulation. Afterwards, a PID controller is tuned to stabilise the robot on the inclined plane. A heuristic fuzzy controller and a PID controller are also designed to move the robot upward or downward the inclined plane and approach the target point. A switched control, i.e. a combination of the designed controllers, is finally suggested to control the motion of the robot on the inclined plane. Simulations are conducted to investigate and compare the performance of the proposed controllers. Experiments are also conducted for different cases to validate the simulations and also evaluate the control strategies via image processing.