Wheel-legged Robot

Zihan Wang
Apr. 2025 - Jun. 2025
Wheel-legged Robot

Abstract

We developed a wheeled-legged balancing robot that combines the advantages of wheeled mobility and legged stability. The system features a custom-designed STM32F103 microcontroller board with embedded software implementing Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR) and Virtual Model Control (VMC) algorithms. The robot is capable of balancing, load-carrying, and differential-drive locomotion, demonstrating robust performance in various operational scenarios. This project showcases the integration of advanced control theory with practical robotics implementation, resulting in a versatile mobile platform suitable for both research and educational purposes.
[Code(Hardware)]

Video


1. Mechanical Structure

Car dynamics diagram

2. Electrical System

2.1 DC-DC Power Board

Car dynamics diagram Car dynamics diagram

2.2 Microcontroller Board

Car dynamics diagram Car dynamics diagram

3. Control System

[wheel_legged_model] [control_algorithm] Dynamic model diagram

4. Simulation

[Code(Simulation to do)]
Legged wheel simulation

References

  1. L. Cui et al., "Learning-Based Balance Control of Wheel-Legged Robots," in IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, vol. 6, no. 4, pp. 7667-7674, Oct. 2021, doi: 10.1109/LRA.2021.3100269. PDF
  2. A. Zhang, R. Zhou, T. Zhang, J. Zheng and S. Chen, "Balance Control Method for Bipedal Wheel-Legged Robots Based on Friction Feedforward Linear Quadratic Regulator," Sensors, vol. 25, no. 4, Art. no. 1056, 2025. doi:10.3390/s25041056. PDF
  3. X. Feng, S. Liu, Q. Yuan, J. Xiao and D. Zhao, "Research on wheel-legged robot based on LQR and ADRC," Sci. Rep., vol. 13, Art. no. 15122, 2023. doi:10.1038/s41598-023-41462-1. PDF
  4. Y. Chen, H. Wang and L. Zhang, "Control of Wheel-legged Balancing Robot," INFORMATION AND CONTROL, vol. 52, no. 5, pp. 648-659, 2023. doi:10.13976/j.cnki.xk.2023.2533. PDF
  5. S. Wang et al., "Balance Control of a Novel Wheel-legged Robot: Design and Experiments," in Proc. IEEE Int. Conf. Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2021, pp. 6782-6788. doi:10.1109/ICRA48506.2021.9561579. PDF
  6. V. Klemm et al., "LQR-Assisted Whole-Body Control of a Wheeled Bipedal Robot With Kinematic Loops," IEEE Robot. Autom. Lett., vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 3745-3752, Apr. 2020. PDF
  7. V. Klemm, A. Morra, C. Salzmann, F. Tschopp, K. Bodie, L. Gulich, N. K fcng, D. Mannhart, C. Pfister and M. Vierneisel, "Ascento: A Two-Wheeled Jumping Robot," in Proc. IEEE Int. Conf. Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Montreal, QC, Canada, 2019, pp. 7515-7521. PDF
  8. RoboMaster BBS, "轮式腿式机器人讨论帖 (9090)", RoboMaster 技术论坛. 链接
  9. RoboMaster BBS, "轮式腿式机器人经验分享 (9430)", RoboMaster 技术论坛. 链接