Whole-Body Stabilization of Wheeled Bipedal Robots via Decoupled Control of Wheels and Legs
Jechan Jeon, Jaewoo An, Youngsu Cha, Yonghwan Oh
Abstract
Wheeled-legged robots offer significant mobility advantages, yet their control is complicated by the coupled dynamics of the wheel and leg systems. To address this challenge, we propose a whole-body control framework built upon a decoupled architecture. In this structure, a two-wheeled inverted pendulum (TWIP) template exclusively manages wheel motion, freeing the whole-body controller to focus solely on the leg dynamics. To validate the generality of our approach, we conducted extensive simulations across various robot configurations, including both closed-loop and open-loop leg structures. The results demonstrate the robot’s ability to maintain stability across several challenging scenarios: a high-speed (5 m/s) slalom on flat ground, a low-speed (0.5 m/s) slalom on terrain with 10 cm height variations, and immediate stabilization after a 2 m free-fall. These findings highlight the potential of decoupled control as a promising direction for developing more agile and resilient robotic systems.
BibTeX
@inproceedings{iros2025_wholebodystabili,
title = {Whole-Body Stabilization of Wheeled Bipedal Robots via Decoupled Control of Wheels and Legs},
author = {Jechan Jeon and Jaewoo An and Youngsu Cha and Yonghwan Oh},
booktitle = {IROS 2025},
year = {2025}
}