This paper presents a novel approach for stabilizing a two wheeled mobile robot while traversing down a stair terrain. During flight, the drive wheels of the mobile robot are used as control input to generate reaction torque to alter the pre-impact landing angle, ensuring a successful landing. A state dependent feedback control scheme is used for continuous step traversing while keeping the robot upright. Relationships between travel velocity, height of step and landing angle were investigated. The proposed approach was simulated using physics simulation engine and a physical prototype was constructed to confirm simulation findings. Results were compared with conventional two wheeled robot control scheme and effectiveness of proposed approach was confirmed.

[abstFig src='/00280006/05.jpg' width='300' text='The headset type intraoral interface' ] An extra degree of freedom to human body movement could assist people in a variety of tasks. To this end, we have previously proposed a human-ability extension system through a supernumerary limb. The system comprises of a manipulator that acts as a third arm, a feedback device that displays its status, and an interface that allows for its hands-free operation. Herein, we present this novel, intraoral interface that utilizes tongue motions and expiratory pressure. In contrast to the conventional intraoral interfaces that suffer from a lack of degrees of freedom and stability, our advanced interface is equipped with inertial measurement units and a pressure sensor to solve these problems without sacrificing the ease of use. The proposed interface is utile not only in our ongoing “Third Arm” project, but also in various other applications. We conclude with experimental evaluation of the system’s usability and its efficacy for human-ability extension systems.

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