Stabilization Control of Inverted Two-Wheeled Luggage Transport Vehicle Using a Kalman Filter-Based Disturbance Observer

In addition to the declining birthrate and aging population in Japan, there has been a recent decrease in its total population. This threatens to exacerbate a shortage in labor force, which could trigger an increase in the luggage transport costs of transportation companies or the service industry. The demand for inverted two-wheeled luggage transport vehicles has been increasing steadily owing to their high mobility, compactness, affordability, and pivotal turnability. However, owing to their statical instability, these vehicles are limited. Accordingly, stability can be improved in these systems by configuring a spreading system and applying a disturbance observer based on a Kalman filter. The application of a Kalman filter enables us to estimate the disturbance in which the error between the true and estimated values is the least mean square. Furthermore, we validated the efficiency of the proposed method via its translational movement, turning angle control, and load-loading/unloading experiments using various loads.