Design of the Dual Offset Active Caster Wheel for Holonomic Omni-Directional Mobile Robots

Woojin Chung,Jiyong Jin,Changbae Jung,Chang-Bae Moon

doi:10.5772/10485

Abstract

It is shown how a holonomic and omni-directional mobile robot is designed towards indoor public services. Dual offset steerable wheels with orthogonal velocity components are proposed. The proposed wheel provides precise positioning and reliable navigation performance as well as durability. A fabricated prototype is introduced, then, an experiment is carried out.

Highlights

In recent years, there have been various trials to extend robotics technology to non‐industrial applications, for examples, surgery, rehabilitation, floor cleaning, building patrol and so forth
This paper mainly focuses on the development of the practical holonomic omnidirectional mobile robot
A typical approach is to use a universal wheel which is composed of a series of rollers along the rolling direction, for example, see (Muir and Neuman, 1987)

Summary

Introduction

There have been various trials to extend robotics technology to non‐industrial applications, for examples, surgery, rehabilitation, floor cleaning, building patrol and so forth. Most significant advantage of the synchronous drive robot is that the omnidirectional movement can be achieved by using only two actuators. The rolling contacts provide nonholonomic constraints and the resultant motion of the sphere module becomes holonomic This fact implies that the robot can be moved with any desired linear/ angular velocities at any time. By using the sphere wheel, a holonomic omnidirectional mobile robot can be developed and the robot achieves smooth and continuous contact between the sphere and the ground. Off‐centered steerable wheels (offset caster type) provide holonomic features, i.e, arbitrary translational and rotational motions are available without changing wheel configurations Examples of such mechanism can be seen in (Hanebeck, et al, 1999) and (Wada and Mori, 1996).

Design of the Mobile Robot

Prototype

Experiments

Findings

Conclusions