Strategy control of drive mechatronic system for Virtusphere with two actuators

The studies performed by the authors on Virtusphere (VS) platform led to identify solution to improve the feeling of immersion provided by a virtual environment. It was concluded in a previous paper that this feeling could be achieved by upgrading the VS with a mechatronic system. First experiments were performed using one brushless DC (BLDC) motor to determine if the actuation method and the control strategy suit application requirements. These were validated by comparing the results of the MATLAB / Simulink simulations with the practical results. To further enhance the system’s effectiveness, the authors propose an additional actuator. This paper presents improvements to the drive mechatronic system for Virtusphere (DMSVS) and a strategy to synchronize the two motors with the user’s movement. Using two in-wheel motors to reduce power transmission elements, a series of experiments were performed to implement the synchronization equations. At the end of this article will be presented the results of these experiments and conclusions about the control algorithm with simple wheels and with the new omnidirectional wheel design developed by the authors.