Optimizing step climbing by two connected wheeled inverted pendulum robots

In manufacturing plants, automated guided vehicles (AGV) are in wide use. Wheeled inverted pendulum robots have advantages over the common AGV; they have high manoeuvrability on flat surfaces, and they have a self-balancing system such that height and weight of the payload do not have effect on the base size. Despite the aforementioned advantages, wheeled inverted pendulum robots have limited ability to overcome obstacles like staircases. Manufacturing floor requires a robot to have high manoeuvrability while being able to overcome obstacles. We used two wheeled inverted pendulum type robots, each with an extensible connecting arm. If there is an obstacle in its way the robot will call a nearby one, the two autonomously connect and after overcoming the obstacle separate. We investigated the effect of the distance between the two robots and different control algorithms on the required torque to climb stairs of different dimensions. We found the speed control to be most efficient. (C) 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.