Holonomic Omnidirectional Vehicle with Ball Wheel Drive Mechanism

Abstract

A holonomic omnidirectional vehicle can instantly produce speed in any direction. It has a high level of mobility even on narrow spaces and expected to have a wide field of application. A lot of mechanisms have been developed to realize omnidirectional motions. However, no vehicle achieves an optimal balance between mechanism and control. We have been developed a holonomic omnidirectional vehicle with ball wheel drive mechanism. This mechanism has three ball wheels and three actuators, in which each ball wheel is driven by two actuators. This mechanism do not cause over constraint, because the number of actuators agrees with the number of motion freedom on a flat surface. It was realized to devise layout of ball wheels and actuators. Also this mechanism is simple, but it can easily be controlled and has a high level of mobility. A prototype vehicle was developed to perform experiments of absolutely necessary performance in practical use. In motion experiments, we confirmed step overcoming, gap traversing and slope climbing ability on riding an adult (approximately 56 [kg] ).