Design of a spherical robot based on novel double ballast masses principle

A spherical robot based on a novel double ballast masses principle is developed for military reconnaissance and unknown environment exploration. The robot is driven by two DC motors, each of which drives one ballast mass, and the two ballast masses are placed symmetrically on the major axis. Compared with the traditional ballast mass principle, the robot has featured high speed, the ability of slope climbing and obstacle overcoming in linear motion. The robot has two inputs and three DOF, which is a nonholonomic and underactuated system. The dynamic model of the robot is constructed, and the linear motion performance of robot in theory is proved by Adams simulation. The control system is briefly introduced, and the performance of the prototype is tested by experiments at last.