Meet the Wheelbot: a unicycle robot that can jump on one of its wheels and balance using brushless motors. It measures 22cm tall and has two identical wheels for balancing. Its 3D printed reaction wheels measure 10cm in diameter. Optical encoders record the motors’ rotational velocity while 4 x IMUs are used to sense orientation.
A. René Geist, Jonathan Fiene, Naomi Tashiro, Zheng Jia, and Sebastian Trimpe are the researchers behind this project, which was done at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, Stuttgart and RWTH Aachen University.
[HT]