The main goal of this project was construction of a small (~1 foot tall), two-wheeled, self-balancing robot similar to a Segway. Such a device is a type of inverted pendulum. The project was deemed appropriate because completion would require use of skills from multiple disciplines of engineering and physics. Some of the major tasks required were mathematically modeling the device from equations of motion in Matlab/Simulink, drawing CAD schematics of the physical apparatus, programming a microcontroller, and physically wiring all required electronic hardware together.
Main Components: Orangutan SCP-1284p Microcontroller, Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU), Bluetooth Module
The IMU contains sensors that were used to measure the tilt angle. This information was sent to the microcontroller
The microcontroller then uses a PID Controller algorithm to analyze the data and set the motor speeds accordingly
Bluetooth communication was used to send commands to the robot (reset, power down, set PID values)
PID Controller Testing
Schematic
