Abstract: Because existing ball-shaped robots have many drawbacks, such as weak capability of environmental perception and low precision of motion control, a novel ball-shaped robot with stereo vision, referred to as Visionbot, is proposed. After introduction of mechanical structure of the Visionbot, dynamic model of the robot is developed by using the constrained general Lagrangian formulation, as well as model simplification under reasonable assumptions. Based on a linearization approach, dynamic model of the robot is decomposed, and motion controller is designed, including two inner torque controllers and an outer path tracking controller. A motion control algorithm with delayed visual feedback is designed for the robot. Effects of pendulum mass and delayed visual feedback on performance of the control algorithm is studied by simulated experiments. Experimental results not only validate the feasibility of system design, but also can be used to do the optimum design and prototype development of the robot.

Key words: Ball-shaped robot, Motion control, Path tracking, Stereo vision