Prevention of Oscillations of a Spherical Robot in Longitudinal Motion

A spherical robot (robot ball) whose internal mechanism contains a platform resting with its edges on the inner surface of the sphere is considered. A fork is attached to the platform, inside which a wheel is mounted that touches this surface of the sphere. The mechanism contains two drives, one of which rotates the plane of the wheel relative to the sphere, and the other rolls the wheel along its inner surface. With the help of the first drive, the direction of motion of the robot changes, and the other drive performs its marching motion (rolling of the sphere) along the desired direction. A control law is considered that makes it possible to prevent the occurrence of undesirable oscillations of a sphere of relatively large amplitude in its longitudinal motion.