Motion Control of an Autonomous Wheel-Leg Bikebot

An autonomous bikebot (i.e., bicycle-like robot) is an attractive single-track platform for off-road, agile navigation applications. It is challenging for bikebots to navigate at low velocity on off-road, cluttered terrains. In this paper, we design a wheel-leg hybrid bikebot control system. The bikebot control can switch between different actuation modes. At low-speed movement and on off-road, bumpy terrains, the regular steering-induced balance torque itself cannot effectively balance the platform and the leg-assisted balance torque is used. A model predictive control is designed for the leg assistive actuation to take advantage of the leg-ground interaction force and balance torque. By doing so, the bikebot can safely navigate and balance in various off-road environments. High-fidelity simulation results are presented to demonstrate that the wheel-leg bikebot can efficiently navigate at low speed in cluttered space and keep balance on bumpy terrains.