Autonomous Bicycle: The First Self Balanced Ride

Abstract

The idea of an autonomous bicycle originates from Jens G. Balchen who wanted to make an unmanned autonomous bicycle. The idea was picked up by Amund Skavhaug who extended the idea with the concept of using an inverted pendulum to simulate a leaning rider. The previous attempts to develop a bicycle capable of performing an autonomous ride has so far all ended in failure. The main reason for the Department of Engineering Cybernetics is to develop such a bicycle is for use in recruitment and motivation of students. The main goal of this thesis is to develop a bicycle that after the implementation of a suitable control is capable of performing an autonomous ride.The goal of this thesis is to create a controller making the bicycle capable of performing the first self balanced ride. The focus is not on implementing the most advanced controller but creating a system actually capable of performing this first ride. An equally important focus is that the framework delivered at the end of this thesis is capable of handling the further development towards a fully autonomous bicycle.The author has during this thesis performed the additions needed in order to be able to implement a self balancing controller. The parameters of the real bicycle were measured and used to create a simulation environment of the bicycle in Simulink. Several controllers were simulated in Simulink, before a controller were implemented on the physical bicycle.The physical bicycle delivered as a part of this thesis consists of a fully functional framework both capable and ready for the further development. A self balancing controller is implemented on the bicycle and the bicycle has performed it's first self balance ride.