Steering Control of an Autonomous Unicycle

The steering control of an autonomous unicycle is considered. The underlying dynamical model of a single rolling wheel is discussed regarding the steady-state motions and their stability. The unicycle model is introduced as the simplest possible extension of the rolling wheel, where the location of the center of gravity is controlled. With the help of the Appellian approach, a state-space representation of the controlled nonholonomic system is built in a way that the most compact nonlinear equations of motion are constructed. Based on controllability analysis, feedback controllers are designed that successfully carry out lane changing and turning maneuvers. The behavior of the closed-loop system is demonstrated by numerical simulations.