Self Balancing Gyroscope Two Wheele

Introduction

Finally completed my self balancing two inline wheeled vehicle project which really began about seven years ago and culminated in this vehicle using 730gram gyroscope rotor, dc 395 gimbal control motor and VNH5019 motor driver. It uses RC gear to control vehicle drive motor and steering and an Arduino Uno to control the gimbal balancing control using a single non-contact potentiometer to determine vehicle angle (gimbal angle).

Self Balancing Gyroscope Two Wheeler on Highwire
Self Balancing Gyroscope Two Wheeler on Highwire

Video of vehicle doing a balancing act on highwire

Details on how to build a self balancing gyroscopically controlled vehicle are in my free pdf booklet that is downloadable on my blog site here: https://demej00.wordpress.com/2020/02/08/self-balancing-gyroscope-two-wheeler/

Brennan's self balancing two wheeler in 1907 on a cable.

This is the only sensor the vehicle uses, a P3022 contactless potentiomenter that really works in a vibration prone environment. Best pot I have ever used.

I had to double the rotor size to this 730 gram rotor to balance a 3 kilogram vehicle at about 4000 rpm. The motor is dc 550 size.

My final incarnation, using a horizontal axis orientation for the gyroscope rotor which allows fast vehicle right and left turns. A vertical axis orientation does not allow turns in both directions and only alternative is to use two gyroscopes which is just twice the work and headaches. Very happy with the performance of my single gyro vehicle.

After spending quite a bit of time this last year working on various gimbal motor and motor driver combinations I finally have it working well enough to call it successful and so move on to other things. It was fun and fulfilling though at times tedious and frustrating but still not glad to say it has ended.

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Self Balancing Gyroscope Two Wheeler on Highwire

Video of vehicle doing a balancing act on highwire

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