A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Engineering, School of Engineering and Technology

Thesis (M.Eng.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2006

Balancing an unstable system is a difficult task to be done. Bicycle is a model of an unstable system, it is impossible to make the bicycle standstill without giving any effort to balance. A gyroscope, a spinning wheel mechanism that tries to prevent its' direction when a force is applied at that mechanism is used for torque source to balance the bicycle. By spins gyroscope on the vertical axis, embed the other axis on the bicycle, and control the third axis of the gyroscope, balancing of a bicycle can be done. A PD controller that is implemented using 8 bit microcontroller 68HCll is used for controlling the gyroscope, an algorithm to shift the center of gravity along control axis of gyroscope is implemented together, resulting a bond control algorithm that balance the bicycle while preventing the gyroscope from saturation. Rear wheel system is used to actuate the bicycle for forward movement. A simple closed loop PD controller is used, and resulting a stable constant speed. Steering system is used to make the bicycle have turning capability. A PD controller is used for position controller, even producing a small steady state error, the performance still acceptable. A mathematical model was developed to be conformed to the real experiment result, simulation is run on Simulink software. Data was taken from the experiment and shows that the system is stable