Proceedings of the 2017 IEEE International Conference on Applied System Innovation

IEEE-ICASI 2017 - Meen, Prior & Lam (Eds)

Electric unicycle control

Chih-Hui Chiu a and Ya-Fu Peng b
a Department of Communications, Navigation and Control Engineering, National Taiwan Ocean
University No. 2, Beining Rd., Jhongjheng District, Keelung City, 20224, Taiwan, R.O.C.
E-mail: chchiu@ntou.edu.tw
bDepartment of Electrical Engineering, Chien-Hsin University,
Chung-Li, Tao-Yuan, 320, Taiwan, R.O.C.

Abstract—In this paper, an electric unicycle system is
constructed. Moreover, a model-free adaptive fuzzy control
method is proposed for an electric unicycle system real time
control. By the control scheme, the electric unicycle system is
controlled without accurate system information. The parameters
of fuzzy membership functions are adjusted online using the
dynamic gradient descent method. In the end, the experimental
results are used to verify the effectiveness of the electric unicycle
system control.
Keywords—adaptive control; model-free fuzzy control; electric
unicycle; real world control.
I. INTRODUCTION
In the field of control, the tracking control of uncertain
systems is an important topic. Obviously, control system
performance is almost realized using rotary motors with
mechanical parts. These mechanical parts will reduce the linear
speed and system response. Moreover, it will also generate
chatting and friction. Many authors have proposed various
control techniques for control system tracking problems, which
consist of fuzzy neural cerebellar model articulation network
[1], smooth time-invariant control method [2], neural network
[3], etc. Moreover, the authors [4] use an in-wheel motor and a
reaction wheel pendulum to control the unicycle robot’s roll
and pitch. In [5], a novel motion control method is investigated
for wheeled inverted pendulum control. In [6], the authors
proposed an approach to compensate the external disturbances
and the model uncertainties to improve the system performance.
Traditional control methods such as proportional integral
derivative control, variable structure control, and linear
quadratic control always need a good information and correct
system model to obtain a required performance. However, it is
always difficult to obtain the exact system dynamic model, or
the mathematical model is complex to achieve in a real world
control. It is not easy for an engineer to design a controller
using traditional method if the dynamics of the consider system
is unknown.
On the control view, intelligent control methods (e.g.,
genetic control, fuzzy logic, neural network, or expert system)
[7]-[11] provide a way for the nonlinear system controllers
design with unknown or uncertain system dynamics. Neural
networks (NNs) are always considered as powerful building
blocks for a wide class of complex nonlinear system control
strategies when model information is absent. However, in NNs,
the learning is slow, as all system parameters are updated
during each learning cycle. Recently, the cerebellar model
articulation controller (CMAC) is proposed. The major
advantages of CMAC are simple computation and easier
hardware implementation. However, the drawback of CMAC is
that they are static networks.
The fuzzy theory is arisen from the desire of linguistic
description for complex system and it can be utilized to
formulate and translate the human experience to appropriately
automatic control strategies. This kind of human intelligence
is easily represented by the fuzzy logic control structure.
Fuzzy logic control is a complete difference approach that
does not require a precise mathematical model of system. This
control method is based on human experience to understand
the behavior of system. Thus, control design is simple than
using traditional control method. There have been many
researches [12]-[15] that use the fuzzy controller to control
nonlinear system. However, fuzzy rules and membership
functions are usually designed by users using a trial and error
procedure. Moreover, the suitable parameters of a fuzzy
controller are always determined based on the designers’ own
experience, as is the case for the Mamdani-type fuzzy control
technique. This will cause the fuzzy models can hardly be
utilized to design controllers for control of the physical
systems.
In this paper, an electric unicycle system is constructed
firstly. Such a platform is driven by a single wheel. Single-
wheel platforms are simple in their mechanical frames than
multi-wheel platforms. Moreover, a simple algorithm based on
model free techniques is developed systematically to solve the
fuzzy tracking control design for an electric unicycle system.
Therefore, the proposed tracking control design is suitable for
practical applications. Moreover, the parameters of the
membership functions can be automatically adjusted
according to some adaptation laws for the purpose to track a
wanted trajectory. Finally, experimental results demonstrate
that the proposed adaptive fuzzy control system can obtain a
good tracking performance.
II. THE STRUCTURE OF ELECTRIC UNICYCLE
Figure 1 shows the simply diagram of electric unicycle.

1546 - ISBN 978-1-5090-4897-7

 Proceedings of the 2017 IEEE International Conference on Applied System Innovation
IEEE-ICASI 2017 - Meen, Prior & Lam (Eds)

∑ D C ( z )C ( z )…C
i
i
1 1
i
2 2
i
m ( zm )
(2)
F= i =1
n

∑ C1i ( z1 )C2i ( z2 )…Cni ( zm )

i =1

where Di is the output singleton consequent.

Here, the accurate mathematical model of the unicycle is
unknown but the acceleration of the output of the rim motor is
proportional to input. Define the system error as
em yd ( t ) − y ( t ) where yd ( t ) is the desired trajectory and y is
=
Fig. 1. The structure of electric unicycle.
In Fig.1, φ is the slant angle of the unicycle, l is the length the output of the unicycle and change-of-error= eɺm yɺ d ( t ) − yɺ ( t ) ;
of the unicycle body, h is the horizontal force on the wheel, U the output is the control signal F.
is the vertical force on the wheel, f is the force applied on The inputs membership function of fuzzy controller which
unicycle, x is the unicycle moving distance. the linguistic values are NB, NS, ZO, PS and PB shows as
Fig.3. (a), (b), and output membership function which the
Fig. 2 is the electric unicycle experimental system. The
linguistic values are NB, NS, ZO, PS and PB shows as Fig.3.
vehicle is composed of one tire, one motor, batteries, motor
(c). The fuzzy rules base for fuzzy controller design in Table 1.
driver circuits with pulse-width-modulation (PWM), one
The proposed control system is shown in Fig. 4.
control circuit with microprocessor, one gyroscope sensor, one
tilt sensor, and one digital signal processor (DSP) as the control
center. The motor driver is used to deliver the PWM signal to
NB NS ZO PS PB NB NS ZO PS PB
drive the rim motor. The angle and the angle rate are measured 1 1
by sensors. In order to maintain unicycle’s balance, the DSP
controller receives the signals from the sensors and sends
suitable command to control the unicycle.
-6 -3 0 3 6 deg -15 -7 0 7 15 deg/s
(a) (b)
Control
NB NS ZO PS PB
Batteries circuit with 1
microprocess
or

Motor driver
-45 -20 0 20 45 N
circuit
Rim (c)
motor Fig.3. Membership functions of fuzzy controller

Fig. 2. Electric unicycle. Table 1

Rule base for the fuzzy balance controller
III. ADAPTIVE FUZZY CONTROL STRATEGY em
eɺm NB NS ZO PS PB
First, a fuzzy system control strategy is reviewed. Let the
fuzzy input parameters be z j , j = 1,… , m , where m is the NB NB NS NM NM ZO
dimension of the input of the fuzzy controller. Then the output NS NS NM NS ZO PM
parameter of the fuzzy controller is w. The universe of the
ZO NM NS ZO PS PM
input parameter z j is partitioned into fuzzy sets C1 ,…, Cm
PS NS ZO PS PM PS
and the output parameter wi is partitioned into fuzzy singletons
D1 ,… , Dn . Then, the fuzzy rule R i , i = 1,…, n where n is the PB ZO PS PM PS PB
total number of the fuzzy rules has the form

R i : If z1 is C1i ,… , and zm is Cmi , then wi is Di (1)

Moreover, the fuzzy defuzzification mechanism is

center of gravity defuzzification method with the product as
fuzzy AND operation and the sum as the fuzzy OR operation.
Then, the crisp output F is derived in

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Proceedings of the 2017 IEEE International Conference on Applied System Innovation
IEEE-ICASI 2017 - Meen, Prior & Lam (Eds)

( Di − F ) m 2( z j − mij ) (7)
yd + em
i
∆m=
j α m (em + eɺm ) ∏C (z ) i
j j
n m
(σ ij ) 2
Fuzzy F ∑∏ C ij ( z j ) j =1

Controller Unicycle i =1 j =1
y - d/dt eɺm
The means of the Gaussian membership functions can now be
em updated according to the following equation:
Online
Learning
Mechanism mij ( N=
+ 1) mij ( N ) + ∆mij ( N ) (8)
d/dt eɺm

Fig. 4. The fuzzy control system.

where N denotes the number of iteration. By the same way,
the variances of the Gaussian membership functions also can
be adjusted in the following equation to increase the learning
capability
IV. ONLINE LEARNING ALGORITHM
The central part of the learning algorithm of this system ∂E ∂E ∂F (9)
concerns how to recursively obtain a gradient value in which ∆σ ij =
−ασ −ασ
=
∂σ ij ∂F ∂σ ij
each element in the learning algorithm is defined as the
derivative of an energy function with respect to a parameter of
the system. This is done by means of the chain rule, and the where ασ is the learning-rate parameter for all
method is generally referred to as the backpropagation learning σ i
j = 1, 2… m . Substituting (2) and (6) into (9), then
rule. To describe the online learning algorithm of the proposed j

method using the gradient descent method, the energy function

E is defined as ( Di − F ) m 2( z j − mij ) 2 (10)
∆σ=
i
j ασ (em + eɺm ) n m ∏C (z ) i
j j
(σ ij )3
∑∏ C ij ( z j ) j =1

1 1 2 (3) i =1 j =1
E= ( yd − y ) 2 = em
2 2 The variances can be updated according to the following
equation.
Gaussian membership function can be represented as
σ ij ( N=
+ 1) σ ij ( N ) + ∆σ ij ( N ) (11)
−( z − mij ) 2 (4)
=C ij ( z ) exp(
= ) for j 1… m
(σ ij ) 2 where N denotes the number of iteration.

With the energy function, the learning algorithm based on V. EXPERIMENTAL EXAMPLES
backpropagation method for means, m ij j = 1, 2… m , can be In the section, the proposed adaptive fuzzy control method
derived as is used to control an electric unicycle. Fig. 5 shows the angle of
electric unicycle. Fig. 6 shows the angle velocity of electric
∂E ∂E ∂F
unicycle. Fig. 7 is the photograph of sequence experiments.
−α m
∆mij = −α m
= (5) The high effectiveness of the proposed control strategy is
∂mij ∂F ∂mij
conformed.

where α m is the learning-rate parameter for all

10

8
Angle of Electric Unicycle(deg)

i
m j j = 1, 2… m . In (5), this term, ∂E ∂F , cannot not be 4

determined due to the unknown dynamics of the system. To

0

-2

overcome this problem, an adaptation propagation law is -4

-6

adopted as follow [7] -8

-10
2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
time(s)

∂E (6)
Fig. 5. The angle of electric unicycle.
= em + eɺm
Angular Velocity of Electric Unicycle(deg/sec)

∂F
30

20

The means can be adjusted based on the following 10

equation. Substituting (2) and (6) into (5), then 0

-10

-20

-30
2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
time(s)

Fig. 6. The angle velocity of electric unicycle.

1548 - ISBN 978-1-5090-4897-7

 Proceedings of the 2017 IEEE International Conference on Applied System Innovation
IEEE-ICASI 2017 - Meen, Prior & Lam (Eds)

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work is supported by the Ministry of Science and
Technology of Taiwan, R.O.C. under the Grant MOST 105-
2221-E-155 -052.

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