SELF BALANCING ROBOT USING BLUETOOTH MODULE

1. INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this project is to design a two wheeled self-balancing robot. There are two
parts to the system: motor controller and geographic controller. Each control system is
implemented into different boards.

The motor control board is responsible for calibrating each motor to perform self-
balancing and directional movements. In order for the robot to perform self-balancing,
the motor control must implement a self-balancing algorithm which uses the input of an
accelerometer and gyroscope module. The geographic control board provides directional
movement the robot must execute such as turn left, go forward, stop, etc. The direction is
mostly indicated by the user using an android phone via Bluetooth communication. The
sensors are used to override user control for obstacle avoidance.

To keep the robot balanced, the motors must counteract the robot falling. This action
requires feedback and correcting elements. The feedback element is the MPU6050
gyroscope + accelerometer, which gives both acceleration and rotation in all three axes
(MPU6050 I2C basics). The Arduino uses this to know the current orientation of the
robot. The correcting element is the motor and wheel combination.

Figure 1 Sense till and drive wheels

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2. DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION

2.1 HARDWARE DESIGN

This is the basic block diagram of hardware design of the self balcing robot.

Figure 2 Block diagram

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2.2 PID control Implementation

Figure 3 PID controller Implementation

The PID controller is both software and hardware implementation. The angle reading
from the MPU6050 module and the desired angle are fed to the PID algorithm — which
calculates the error and outputs a control signal. The control signal is fed to the
motorController which is responsible for driving the stepper motors.

The PID algorithm relies heavily on the three constant parameters: Kp Ki Kd, where Kp
is the proportional constant, Ki is the integral constant, and Kd is the derivative constant.
The constants are multiplied with their respective terms P, I, and D terms.

The P term is responsible for calculating the proportional error or present error.
The I term is responsible for calculating the accumulation of the past errors.
The D term is responsible for calculating the prediction of future errors based on DT (rate

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ofchange).
By summing up these three terms, the PID controller is able to output a control signal that
drives the system towards the target output (desired angle).

3. CONNECTION DIAGRAM

Figure 4 Main Connection Circuit

Connect the MPU6050 to the Arduino first and test the connection using the codes in
this IMU interfacing tutorial. If data is now displayed on the serial monitor, you're good
to go! Proceed to connect the rest of the components as shown above. The L298N module
can provide the +5V needed by the Arduino as long as its input voltage is +7V or greater.

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However, I chose to have separate power sources for the motor and the circuit for
isolation. Note that if you are planning to use a supply voltage of more than +12V for the
L298N module, you need to remove the jumper just above the +12V input.

4. BUILDING THE ROBOT

Figure 5 Basic Setup of Robot

Robot frame (made mostly of acrylic slab) with two geared DC motors.

Figure 6 Arduino nano and MPU6050

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Main circuit board, consisting of an Arduino Nano and MPU6050 .

Figure 7 L298N Motor Driver Module

Figure 8 Geared DC Motor With Wheel

The self-balancing robot is essentially an inverted pendulum. It can be balanced better if

the center of mass is higher relative to the wheel axles. A higher center of mass means a
higher mass moment of inertia, which corresponds to lower angular acceleration (slower
fall). This is why I've placed the battery pack on top. The height of the robot, however,
was chosen based on the availability of materials.

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5. MORE SELF-BALANCING THEORY

In control theory, keeping some variable (in this case, the position of the robot) steady
needs a special controller called a PID (proportional integral derivative). Each of these
parameters has "gains", normally called Kp, Ki, and Kd. PID provides correction between
the desired value (or input) and the actual value (or output). The difference between the
input and the output is called "error". The PID controller reduces the error to the smallest
value possible by continually adjusting the output. In our Arduino self-balancing robot,
the input (which is the desired tilt, in degrees) is set by software. The MPU6050 reads the
current tilt of the robot and feeds it to the PID algorithm, which performs calculations to
control the motor and keep the robot in the upright position. PID requires that the gains
Kp, Ki, and Kd values be "tuned" to optimal values. Engineers use software like
MATLAB to compute these values automatically. Unfortunately, we can't use MATLAB
in our case because it would further complicate the project. We will tune the PID values
manually instead. Here's how to do this:

 Make Kp, Ki, and Kd equal to zero.

 Adjust Kp. Too little Kp will make the robot fall over, because there's not enough
correction. Too much Kp will make the robot go back and forth wildly. A good
enough Kp will make the robot go slightly back and forth (or oscillate a little).
 Once the Kp is set, adjust Kd. A good Kd value will lessen the oscillations until
the robot is almost steady. Also, the right amount of Kd will keep the robot
standing, even if pushed.
 Lastly, set the Ki. The robot will oscillate when turned on, even if the Kp and Kd
are set, but will stabilize in time. The correct Ki value will shorten the time it
takes for the robot to stabilize.

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6. ARDUINO SELF-BALANCING ROBOT CODE

You needed four external libraries to make this Arduino self-balancing robot work. The
PID library makes it easy to calculate the P, I, and D values. The LMotorController
library is used for driving the two motors with the L298N module. The I2Cdev library
and MPU6050_6_Axis_MotionApps20 library are for reading data from the MPU6050.
You can download the code from github.
CODING

#include <PID_v1.h>
#include <LMotorController.h>
#include "I2Cdev.h"

#include "MPU6050_6Axis_MotionApps20.h"

#if I2CDEV_IMPLEMENTATION == I2CDEV_ARDUINO_WIRE

#include "Wire.h"
#endif

#define LOG_INPUT 0
#define MANUAL_TUNING 0
#define LOG_PID_CONSTANTS 0 //MANUAL_TUNING must be 1
#define MOVE_BACK_FORTH 0

#define MIN_ABS_SPEED 30

//MPU

MPU6050 mpu;

// MPU control/status vars

bool dmpReady = false; //
uint8_t mpuIntStatus; //
MPU
uint8_t devStatus; //
(0 = success, !0 = error)
uint16_t packetSize; //
bytes)
uint16_t fifoCount; //
uint8_t fifoBuffer[64]; //
set true if DMP init was successful
holds actual interrupt status byte from
return status after each device operation
expected DMP packet size (default is 42
count of all bytes currently in FIFO
FIFO storage buffer

// orientation/motion vars
Quaternion q; // [w, x, y, z] quaternion container
VectorFloat gravity; // [x, y, z] gravity vector
float ypr[3]; // [yaw, pitch, roll] yaw/pitch/roll
container and gravity vector

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//PID

#if MANUAL_TUNING
double kp , ki, kd;
double prevKp, prevKi, prevKd;
#endif
double originalSetpoint = 174.29;
double setpoint = originalSetpoint;
double movingAngleOffset = 0.3;
double input, output;
int moveState=0; //0 = balance; 1 = back; 2 = forth

#if MANUAL_TUNING
PID pid(&input, &output, &setpoint, 0, 0, 0, DIRECT);
#else
PID pid(&input, &output, &setpoint, 70, 240, 1.9, DIRECT);
#endif

//MOTOR CONTROLLER

int ENA = 3;
int IN1 = 4;
int IN2 = 8;
int IN3 = 5;
int IN4 = 7;
int ENB = 6;

LMotorController motorController(ENA, IN1, IN2, ENB, IN3, IN4, 0.6,

1);

//timers

long time1Hz = 0;
long time5Hz = 0;

volatile bool mpuInterrupt = false; // indicates whether MPU

interrupt pin has gone high
void dmpDataReady()
{
mpuInterrupt = true;
}

void setup()
{

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// join I2C bus (I2Cdev library doesn't do this automatically)

#if I2CDEV_IMPLEMENTATION == I2CDEV_ARDUINO_WIRE
Wire.begin();
TWBR = 24; // 400kHz I2C clock (200kHz if CPU is 8MHz)
#elif I2CDEV_IMPLEMENTATION == I2CDEV_BUILTIN_FASTWIRE
Fastwire::setup(400, true);
#endif

// initialize serial communication

// (115200 chosen because it is required for Teapot Demo output,
but it's
// really up to you depending on your project)
Serial.begin(115200);
while (!Serial); // wait for Leonardo enumeration, others
continue immediately

// initialize device
Serial.println(F("Initializing I2C devices..."));
mpu.initialize();

// verify connection
Serial.println(F("Testing device connections..."));
Serial.println(mpu.testConnection() ? F("MPU6050 connection
successful") : F("MPU6050 connection failed"));

// load and configure the DMP

Serial.println(F("Initializing DMP..."));
devStatus = mpu.dmpInitialize();

// supply your own gyro offsets here, scaled for min sensitivity
mpu.setXGyroOffset(220);
mpu.setYGyroOffset(76);
mpu.setZGyroOffset(-85);
mpu.setZAccelOffset(1788); // 1688 factory default for my test
chip

// make sure it worked (returns 0 if so)

if (devStatus == 0)
{
// turn on the DMP, now that it's ready
Serial.println(F("Enabling DMP..."));
mpu.setDMPEnabled(true);

// enable Arduino interrupt detection

Serial.println(F("Enabling interrupt detection (Arduino
external interrupt 0)..."));
attachInterrupt(0, dmpDataReady, RISING);
mpuIntStatus = mpu.getIntStatus();

// set our DMP Ready flag so the main loop() function knows
it's okay to use it
Serial.println(F("DMP ready! Waiting for first
interrupt..."));
dmpReady = true;

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// get expected DMP packet size for later comparison

packetSize = mpu.dmpGetFIFOPacketSize();

//setup PID

pid.SetMode(AUTOMATIC);
pid.SetSampleTime(10);
pid.SetOutputLimits(-255, 255);
}
else
{
// ERROR!
// 1 = initial memory load failed
// 2 = DMP configuration updates failed
// (if it's going to break, usually the code will be 1)
Serial.print(F("DMP Initialization failed (code "));
Serial.print(devStatus);
Serial.println(F(")"));
}
}

void loop()
{
// if programming failed, don't try to do anything
if (!dmpReady) return;

// wait for MPU interrupt or extra packet(s) available

while (!mpuInterrupt && fifoCount < packetSize)
{
//no mpu data - performing PID calculations and output to
motors

pid.Compute();
motorController.move(output, MIN_ABS_SPEED);

unsigned long currentMillis = millis();

if (currentMillis - time1Hz >= 1000)

{
loopAt1Hz();
time1Hz = currentMillis;
}

if (currentMillis - time5Hz >= 5000)

{
loopAt5Hz();
time5Hz = currentMillis;
}
}

// reset interrupt flag and get INT_STATUS byte

mpuInterrupt = false;

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mpuIntStatus = mpu.getIntStatus();

// get current FIFO count

fifoCount = mpu.getFIFOCount();

// check for overflow (this should never happen unless our code
is too inefficient)
if ((mpuIntStatus & 0x10) || fifoCount == 1024)
{
// reset so we can continue cleanly
mpu.resetFIFO();
Serial.println(F("FIFO overflow!"));

// otherwise, check for DMP data ready interrupt (this should

happen frequently)
}
else if (mpuIntStatus & 0x02)
{
// wait for correct available data length, should be a VERY
short wait
while (fifoCount < packetSize) fifoCount =
mpu.getFIFOCount();

// read a packet from FIFO

mpu.getFIFOBytes(fifoBuffer, packetSize);

// track FIFO count here in case there is > 1 packet

available
// (this lets us immediately read more without waiting for
an interrupt)
fifoCount -= packetSize;

mpu.dmpGetQuaternion(&q, fifoBuffer);
mpu.dmpGetGravity(&gravity, &q);
mpu.dmpGetYawPitchRoll(ypr, &q, &gravity);
#if LOG_INPUT
Serial.print("ypr\t");
Serial.print(ypr[0] * 180/M_PI);
Serial.print("\t");
Serial.print(ypr[1] * 180/M_PI);
Serial.print("\t");
Serial.println(ypr[2] * 180/M_PI);
#endif
input = ypr[1] * 180/M_PI + 180;
}
}

void loopAt1Hz()
{
#if MANUAL_TUNING
setPIDTuningValues();
#endif
}

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void loopAt5Hz()
{
#if MOVE_BACK_FORTH
moveBackForth();
#endif
}

//move back and forth

void moveBackForth()
{
moveState++;
if (moveState > 2) moveState = 0;

if (moveState == 0)
setpoint = originalSetpoint;
else if (moveState == 1)
setpoint = originalSetpoint - movingAngleOffset;
else
setpoint = originalSetpoint + movingAngleOffset;
}

//PID Tuning (3 potentiometers)

#if MANUAL_TUNING
void setPIDTuningValues()
{
readPIDTuningValues();

if (kp != prevKp || ki != prevKi || kd != prevKd)

{
#if LOG_PID_CONSTANTS
Serial.print(kp);Serial.print(",
");Serial.print(ki);Serial.print(", ");Serial.println(kd);
#endif

pid.SetTunings(kp, ki, kd);

prevKp = kp; prevKi = ki; prevKd = kd;
}
}

void readPIDTuningValues()
{
int potKp = analogRead(A0);
int potKi = analogRead(A1);
int potKd = analogRead(A2);

kp = map(potKp, 0, 1023, 0, 25000) / 100.0; //0 - 250

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ki = map(potKi, 0, 1023, 0, 100000) / 100.0; //0 - 1000

kd = map(potKd, 0, 1023, 0, 500) / 100.0; //0 - 5
}
#endif

My Kp, Ki, Kd values may or may not work you. If they don't, then follow the steps
outlined above. Notice that the input tilt in my code is set to 173 degrees. You can change
this value if you'd like, but take note that this is the tilt angle to which the robot must be
maintained. Also, if your motors are too fast, you can adjust the motor Speed Factor
Left and motor Speed Factor Right values.

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REFERENCE

[1] R. Fierro, F. Lewis, and A. Lowe, “Hybrid control for a class of

underactuated mechanical systems,” IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and
Cybernetics, Part A: Systems and Humans, vol. 29, no. 6, pp. 649–4, nov 1999.

[2] K. Xu and X.-D. Duan, “Comparative study of control methods of single-

rotational inverted pendulum,” in Proceedings of the First International
Conference on Machine Learning and Cybernetics, vol. 2, 2002, pp. 776–8.

[3] F. Grasser, A. D’Arrrigo, S. Colombi, and A. C. Rufer, “JOE: A mobile,

inverted pendulum,” IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, vol. 49, no. 1,
pp. 107–14, 2002.

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