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2017 Volume 32
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RESEARCH ARTICLE   Open Access    

Active balancing and turning for alpine skiing robots

  • Winnipeg

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  • Abstract: This paper presents our preliminary research into the autonomous control of an alpine skiing robot. Based on our previous experience with active balancing on difficult terrain and developing an ice-skating robot, we have implemented a simple control system that allows the humanoid robot Jennifer to steer around a simple alpine skiing course, brake, and actively control the pitch and roll of the skis in order to maintain stability on hills with variable inclination.The robot steers and brakes by using the edges of the skis to dig into the snow, by inclining both skis to one side the robot can turn in an arc. By rolling the skis outward and pointing the toes together the robot creates a snowplough shape that rapidly reduces its forward velocity.To keep the skis in constant contact with the hill we use two independent proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controllers to continually adjust the robot’s inclination in the frontal and sagittal planes.Our experiments show that these techniques are sufficient to allow a small humanoid robot to alpine ski autonomously down hills of different inclination with variable snow conditions.
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  • Cite this article

    Chris Iverach-Brereton, Brittany Postnikoff, Jacky Baltes, Amirhossein Hosseinmemar. 2017. Active balancing and turning for alpine skiing robots. The Knowledge Engineering Review 32(1), doi: 10.1017/S0269888916000163
    Chris Iverach-Brereton, Brittany Postnikoff, Jacky Baltes, Amirhossein Hosseinmemar. 2017. Active balancing and turning for alpine skiing robots. The Knowledge Engineering Review 32(1), doi: 10.1017/S0269888916000163
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RESEARCH ARTICLE   Open Access    

Active balancing and turning for alpine skiing robots

  • Winnipeg

  • Published online: 20 September 2016
The Knowledge Engineering Review  32,  2017, 32(1)  |  Cite this article

Abstract: Abstract: This paper presents our preliminary research into the autonomous control of an alpine skiing robot. Based on our previous experience with active balancing on difficult terrain and developing an ice-skating robot, we have implemented a simple control system that allows the humanoid robot Jennifer to steer around a simple alpine skiing course, brake, and actively control the pitch and roll of the skis in order to maintain stability on hills with variable inclination.The robot steers and brakes by using the edges of the skis to dig into the snow, by inclining both skis to one side the robot can turn in an arc. By rolling the skis outward and pointing the toes together the robot creates a snowplough shape that rapidly reduces its forward velocity.To keep the skis in constant contact with the hill we use two independent proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controllers to continually adjust the robot’s inclination in the frontal and sagittal planes.Our experiments show that these techniques are sufficient to allow a small humanoid robot to alpine ski autonomously down hills of different inclination with variable snow conditions.

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    Acknowledgments

    • The authors would like to acknowledge the assistance of Bill Brereton for the construction of the robot’s skis used in this paper and Lorraine Iverach for her photography. The authors’ team of undergraduate assistants, including Travis Almey, Jason Martin and Caitlin Martins, were invaluable to this research. The authors also thank Robotis for sponsoring the IEEE International Conference on Robtics and Automation (ICRA) Humanoid Application Challenge, which provided the inspiration to take on this project. Finally, the authors thank the University of Manitoba and the Department of Computer Science for their support and equipment.

    • Jennifer is named after Canadian women’s ice hockey Olympic Gold Medalist and world champion Jennifer Botterill.

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    Cite this article
    Chris Iverach-Brereton, Brittany Postnikoff, Jacky Baltes, Amirhossein Hosseinmemar. 2017. Active balancing and turning for alpine skiing robots. The Knowledge Engineering Review 32(1), doi: 10.1017/S0269888916000163
    Chris Iverach-Brereton, Brittany Postnikoff, Jacky Baltes, Amirhossein Hosseinmemar. 2017. Active balancing and turning for alpine skiing robots. The Knowledge Engineering Review 32(1), doi: 10.1017/S0269888916000163
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