Compact Shaft-Rotating Swerve Drive with Prong Structure for Highly-Maneuverable and Agile Robots

Abstract

Robots are becoming increasingly important in our lives. Although many robots are stationary, for example robotic arms, moving robots are of particular interest for many applications. Applications of moving robots today include combating COVID-19 in hospitals, transporting goods in and across warehouses and distribution centers, and moving equipment and instrumentation in space, to name a few. Mobile robots are often required to maneuver rapidly in tight spaces. The best way to achieve this is through a modular assembly called Swerve Drive, which is a driven wheel that can pivot 360 degrees. Three or more modules can be placed at the corners of the robot, allowing high levels of maneuverability, such as, for example, spinning while following a path in any direction. This paper presents the design of a swerve drive module, which improves the current state-of-the-art. The proposed Swerve Drive module has similar properties to current designs available in the market in four out of six metrics defined in this work, while it does significantly better in the other two metrics. Keywords: robotics, mechanical engineering, drivetrain, maneuverability, mobile, swerve-drive