Self-Balancing bot project for eYRC, IIT Bombay
Recently, in May 2019, the state of Odisha was hit by the tropical cyclone Fani. Fani was the strongest cyclone to strike Odisha, since the 1999 Odisha cyclone. Prior to Fani’s landfall, authorities in India moved at least a million people from areas within Fani’s projected path onto higher ground, and into cyclone shelters. Despite the government’s preparedness in handling the disaster, at least 72 people died and many more were injured due to the cyclone.
Immediate and efficient medical assistance is one of the important factors that contributes to minimise the loss of life during a disaster. Making sure that hospitals and shelter camps are well staffed and well stocked is extremely important to ensure patient survival. During a disaster like Cyclone Fani, shelter camps tend to get crowded because of so many people arriving at once to take shelter at the camp. Moreover, access to trained hospital staff like nurses might be limited. In such cases, bipedal robots may be employed to perform tasks like transporting supplies from one part of the camp to another. Bipedal robots such as these need to be able to balance on their own two feet. They should also be able to navigate through cluttered and congested spaces.
This is the challenge we pose in the e-Yantra Robotics Competition (eYRC 2019-20) in a unique theme “Biped Patrol”. This is based on the classic inverted pendulum control problem; the robot attempts to balance from an induced tilt angle by moving forward or backward, the same way we try to balance a stick on a finger. In addition to this, we will be using a Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR) Controller to balance our robot.
Arunava Dey @adey99 (Leader)
Amiya Ghosh @amiya98
Dipanjan Maity @Dipanjan-M
Anick Bhattacharya @anick09