Balancing control of a pedaled, self-balanced unicycle for better human-machine interaction

In this paper, a pedaled, self-balanced, personal mobility vehicle is developed. The vehicle is structurally similar to a pedaled unicycle but uses a brushless DC (BLDC) hub motor as its main driving wheel. In order to reduce the interference and provide a better human-machine interaction, a novel balancing controller with the adaptation capability is proposed. This balancing controller, when working together with a specially designed low-level BLDC driver, can adapt to the uncertain center of gravity of the vehicle frame plus the rider, and the amount of motor torque that fights against the pedaling torque can be reduced to minimum. The control system is implemented and the performance is experimentally validated.