Saved in:
| Main Authors: | , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Preprint |
| Published: |
2025
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.19112 |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1866915376034480128 |
|---|---|
| author | Levy, Rom Dantus, Ari Yu, Zitao Or, Yizhar |
| author_facet | Levy, Rom Dantus, Ari Yu, Zitao Or, Yizhar |
| contents | Underactuated wheeled vehicles are commonly studied as nonholonomic systems with periodic actuation. Twistcar is a classical example inspired by a riding toy, which has been analyzed using a planar model of a dynamical system with nonholonomic constraints. Most of the previous analyses did not account for energy dissipation due to frictional resistance. In this work, we study a theoretical two-link model of the Twistcar while incorporating dissipation due to rolling resistance. We obtain asymptotic expressions for the system's small-amplitude steady-state periodic dynamics, which reveals the possibility of reversing the direction of motion upon varying the geometric and mass properties of the vehicle. Next, we design and construct a robotic prototype of the Twistcar whose center-of-mass position can be shifted by adding and removing a massive block, enabling experimental demonstration of the Twistcar's direction reversal phenomenon. We also conduct parameter fitting for the frictional resistance in order to improve agreement with experiments. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2506_19112 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Analysis and experiments of the dissipative Twistcar: direction reversal and asymptotic approximations Levy, Rom Dantus, Ari Yu, Zitao Or, Yizhar Robotics Dynamical Systems Underactuated wheeled vehicles are commonly studied as nonholonomic systems with periodic actuation. Twistcar is a classical example inspired by a riding toy, which has been analyzed using a planar model of a dynamical system with nonholonomic constraints. Most of the previous analyses did not account for energy dissipation due to frictional resistance. In this work, we study a theoretical two-link model of the Twistcar while incorporating dissipation due to rolling resistance. We obtain asymptotic expressions for the system's small-amplitude steady-state periodic dynamics, which reveals the possibility of reversing the direction of motion upon varying the geometric and mass properties of the vehicle. Next, we design and construct a robotic prototype of the Twistcar whose center-of-mass position can be shifted by adding and removing a massive block, enabling experimental demonstration of the Twistcar's direction reversal phenomenon. We also conduct parameter fitting for the frictional resistance in order to improve agreement with experiments. |
| title | Analysis and experiments of the dissipative Twistcar: direction reversal and asymptotic approximations |
| topic | Robotics Dynamical Systems |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.19112 |