Design Low-Order Robust Controller for Self-Balancing Two-Wheel Vehicle

When there is no driver, balancing the two-wheel vehicle is a challenging but fascinating problem. There are various solutions for maintaining the balance of a two-wheel vehicle. This article presents a solution for balancing a two-wheel vehicle using a flywheel according to the inverted pendulum principle. Since uncertainties influence the actual operating environment of the vehicle, we have designed a robust controller RH ∞ to maintain the vehicle equilibrium. Robust controllers often have a high order that can affect the actual control performance; therefore, order reduction algorithms are proposed. Using Matlab/Simulink, we compared the performance of the control system with different reduced-order controllers to choose a suitable low-order controller. Finally, experimental results using a low-order robust controller show that the vehicle balances steadily in different scenarios: no-load, variable load, stationary, and moving.