Electronic gearing of two DC motor shafts for Wheg type mobile robot

This paper describes the implementation of electronic gearing of two DC motor shafts. DC motors are drives for a mobile robot with wheels in the form of wheel - leg (Wheg) configuration. A single wheel consists of two Whegs (dWheg). The first DC motor drives one Wheg, while the second one drives another independent Wheg. One motor serves as the master drive motor, while the other represents the slave drive motor. As the motors are independent, it is necessary to synchronize the speed and adjust the angle between shafts. The main contribution of this paper is the implementation of control structure that enables the slave to follow the master drive, without mechanical coupling. Based on encoder measurements, the slave effectively follows the master drive for the given references of speed and angle. Speed and positioning loops are implemented on real time controller - sbRIO. The laboratory setup was created and comparison of realized and required angles and speeds was made.