Patent ID: 7779939

Claim:
A transporter for transporting a load over a surface, the transporter comprising: a. a support platform for supporting the load, the support platform characterized by a fore-aft axis, a lateral axis, and an orientation with respect to the surface, the orientation referred to as an attitude; b. at least two ground-contacting members coupled to the support platform in such a manner as to provide locomotion of the support platform with respect to an underlying surface; c. a motorized drive arrangement for driving the at least two ground-contacting members; d. a user input for receiving a command from a user not carried by the transporter to govern operation of the motorized drive arrangement; e. at least one sensor sensing the attitude of the support platform; and f. a controller for commanding the motorized drive arrangement based at least on the attitude of the support platform, the controller generating a control signal based on the user input and commanding the motorized drive on the basis of a sum of coadded terms including at least a first term proportional to the control signal and a second term defining a counteracting contribution proportional to a common component of rotational velocity of the ground contacting members.