Development and Control of a Two-wheeled Inverted Pendulum Robot

I am a Mechanical Engineering student, with no substantial knowledge of electrical engineering or control systems, and I am undertaking a project to design, build and control a two-wheeled inverted pendulum system. This would be my very first construction of this kind and i am oblivious of the best way to go about this work, and the materials to use, and how to design and implement the controllers involved. I chose this project because of the passion I developed over time for mobile robots, but with little knowledge of what to do, I am asking for your help on steps to take to achieve my very first bot within a short period of time.

Thanks

Hi there,
Never build one but several times i wanted to do.
My last resource is a link to a magazine that made a open source project.
they have the article and software open source that will help you, if you want buy the complete set hardware and the free software.
Because it is open source they want you to alter.

Ok, so please what is the link to the magazine?

oops

https://www.elektor.com/projects/elektor-ospv1.1810780.lynkx

Sorry for that.

You also might consider teaming up with an electrical engineering student.

Found this while searching for something else:

* http://www.microchip.com/stellent/idcplg?IdcService=SS_GET_PAGE&nodeId=1824&appnote=en021807

Thats a nice one.

thanks

Or- You could go ultra simple using a 555 timer and some CDS cells...
"Your text to link here...(http://hackaday.com/2011/01/27/555-based-balancing-bot/)":http://hackaday.com/2011/01/27/555-based-balancing-bot/

That is a very simple and smart design.
and yes it avoids money for a micro controller.

The link does not show direct the schematic but if you Google the designers name you find it here.
http://www.reddit.com/r/electronics/comments/...o_build_a_simple_analog_balancing_robot_with/

In order to explain he is using a ac light tube, the ac light pulsing is used in the electronic part.

I wonder if you could simply drive 2 servos (in parallel) so it could be a 2-wheeled 'bot'?

But what balances it on those two wheels -- or is the max radius of the wheels longer that the greatest vertical dimensional extent of the body--a body that likely hangs from the axle with enough weight to overcome torsional friction in the barrings?