In this paper, a small, lightweight smartphone-controlled riding robot is developed. Also, in this study, a smartphone with a jog shuttle mode for consideration of user convenience is proposed to make a small, lightweight riding robot. As well, a compass sensor is used to compensate for the mechanical characteristics of motors mounted on the riding robot. The riding robot is controlled by the interface of a drag-based jog shuttle in the smartphone, instead of a mechanical controller. For a personal riding robot, if the smartphone is used as a controller instead of a handle or a pole, it reduces its size, weight, and cost to a great extent. Thus, the riding robot can be used in indoor spaces such as offices for moving or a train or bus station and an airport for scouting, or hospital for disabilities. Experimental results show that the riding robot is easily and conveniently controlled by the proposed smartphone interface based on Android.