Autonomous Bikebot Control for Crossing Obstacles With Assistive Leg Impulsive Actuation

As a single-track mobile platform, bikebot (i.e., bicycle-based robot) has attractive capability to navigate through narrow, off-road terrain with high speed. However, running crossing step-like obstacles creates challenges for intrinsically unstable, underactuated bikebots. This article presents a novel autonomous bikebot control with two assistive legs to navigate crossing obstacles. The proposed design integrates the external/internal convertible form-based motion control with leg-assisted impulse actuation. The leg-terrain interaction generates impulsive torques to help maintain navigation and balance when running across obstacles. The control performance is analyzed and guaranteed. The experimental results confirm that under the control design, the bikebot can smoothly run crossing multiple step-like obstacles with heights more than one-third of the wheel radius. The comparison results demonstrate the superior performance than those under only the velocity and steering control without leg assistive actuation.