iJOE at IHMC

JOE le pendule's Relatives

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JOE le pendule's relatives

iJoe at the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC)

The Institute for Human and Machine Cognition at the University of West Florida has recently built a JOE le pendule look-alike based on LEI's mechanical design. The team (from left to right: Peter Neuhaus, Tim Hutcheson, Mike O'Sullivan, Jerry Pratt) uses their own control system hardware that is running under TimeSys real-time Linux which allows for programming and operator control through wireless ethernet.

Additionally, this provides a direct connection to their Yobotics Simulation software - the video on the right (ca. 30 sec, 600kB) shows a simulation of JOE le pendule going up a ramp and back through a slalom parcours.

Their version of JOE le pendule will serve as a testing platform for autonomous agent software - thus iJoe will be ultimately freely roaming the UWF campus. Check out the full video of one of their first test runs (ca. 2.5 min, 17MB).

JOE le pendule's Relatives

This section assembles links and short descriptions to other inverted pendulum type vehicles or robots. The collection is mainly based on the links from David P. Anderson's nBot Site. Click the pictures to be taken to the corresponding web page.

	Dean Kamen's Segway probably does not need any further introduction.
	Dean Kamen's iBOT 3000 is a next generation powered wheelchair capable of climbing stairs. The system is sold through Independent Technology, a Johnson&Johnson company.
	Prof. Hofer's unicycle automatically balances the rider who has to steer the vehicle by leaning into corners.
	Trevor Blackwell's "homegrown" segway is very impressive to watch on video.
	Francisco Lobo's Spider was intended to be a balancing robot. Judging by the videos it also makes for a very decent segway style scooter.
	Camosun College's HTV is yet another example of a successful balancing scooter.
	The IHMC's iJoe is based on JOE le pendule's mechanical design but uses different control hard- and software to ultimately evolve into a fully autonomous robot.
	David P. Anderson's autonomous nBot uses appropriately interfaced accelerometers along with a gyroscope to keep its equilibrium.
	Ted Larson's Bender was recently awarded the Gold Medal in the "Best of Show" category at the 1st annual Robolympics.
	Bob Allen's Isis is Bender's twin brother and seems to be doing just as many TV shows as his brother.
	Romano Beneventi has sent me this picture of his balancing robot. Sadly there does not seem to be a webpage.
	Steve Hassenplug's Lego based LegWay uses two Electro-Optical Proximity Detectors to balance and detect and follow lines.
	Larry Barello's Gyrobot relies on a BEI Systron/Donner Gyroscope along with the ADXL 202 accelerometers to achieve equilibrium.
	The Bolton School's Loony Cycle uses gyroscopic moments to stay upright while being steered by two lateral-thrusting fans
	Bram Stolk's robot uses the sourceforge autopilot IMU sensor to balance.
	Bill and Mark Sherman's BaliBot relies on an arrangement of Sensors sensors to determine the tilt angle.
	Matt Cross's Fire Marshal Bill was built to take part in a robot fire fighting contest.
	Earl Bollinger's balancing robot uses a custom made accelerometer - gyroscope combo sensor to balance.
	Dan Piponi's Equibot relies on a single Sharp infrared range sensor to calculate the tilt angle and stabilize the system.
	Ron Gran's Tip originally started off with a ping-pong ball feeler to determine tilt. He has since moved on and installed a Rotomotion IMU unit.
	Alistair Sutherland and Thomas Bräunl's BallyBot relies on a combination of gyroscope and acceleration sensors to keep its equilibrium.
	Jack Wu and Jim Bei's BBot was conceived during a semester project at Carnegie Mellon University. On the videos, it does not quite seem to be balancing yet.

If you have built a inverted pendulum style robot or vehicle and your project is not liked on this page, please send us the adress of your webpage together with a picture and we will happily include your project.