> Two wheeled dynamically balanced warehouse robot like that is completely unnecessary complication.
I had the same intuition, but then I remembered the toy I'm playing with - the spectacularly unstable 4-rotor copter that could not even take off without an onboard computer actively keeping it level all the freaking time. And it's rock solid almost no matter what.
As technology changes, our intuitions must follow.
if the 4-wheeled version must also have the same level of acceleration and speed of picking up, won't it also need a counterbalancing mechanism? It just won't need the "balancing algorithm", but will need a way to balance the arm swinging out.
Also, the counterbalancing mechanism is written with software, so once perfected, it's "free" to deploy. The weight could be the actual batteries, so no added extra weight!
A car does not have an arm that picks up heavy objects. The ones that do (crane trucks) need outriggers and jacks to stabilise the machine and stop any motion before they can extend their arm.
Fork lifts (no outriggers), optionally with a crane arm/jib, are normally used to move goods inside warehouses.
Of course it depends on the weight of what you are moving, but it doesn't seem like the 2 wheeled robots in the video can actually move "heavy" weights.
What do you mean a counterbalancing mechanism? Multiple gyroscopes? It's just a cheap IMU (includes gyrometer) and an additional control output in their controller.
I had the same intuition, but then I remembered the toy I'm playing with - the spectacularly unstable 4-rotor copter that could not even take off without an onboard computer actively keeping it level all the freaking time. And it's rock solid almost no matter what.
As technology changes, our intuitions must follow.