Power-assist transportation based on virtual impedance control for self-balancing robotic cart

In this study, we proposed an efficient power-assist transportation method of a heavy object with a high center of mass using a self-balancing robotic cart. We introduced a virtual impedance between the robot and an operator during a transportation task. This will improve the operability since the operator can feel some physical reaction force from the robot while moving it. Moreover, it is not necessary to remove the position control from general state feed back controller. Through simulations and experiments, it was found that adopting the impedance control was to allow operator to smoothly accelerate, move, and then decelerate the robot.