Reaction Wheel Control System for a Self-balancing Bike : Reaction wheel based control mechanism for a small scale prototype bike

Abstract: In this thesis, the design of a self balancing prototype bike with a reaction wheel as balancing mechanism will be investigated. Bikes are inherently unstable systems, that dynamically resemble an inverted pendulum at a stand still. Previous work has mostly been focused on keeping the balance through manipulating the steering input, and using state space modelling in order to balance the bike. In this project, a PID controller was implemented as a mean of control for the reaction wheel which was driven by a brushless DC motor. Different variations of Ziegler Nichols tuning methods were compared, and an alternative heuristic tuning method for the PID controller was also tested. The standard Ziegler Nichols and the alternative method yielded the best results.