Odometry based pose determination and errors measurement for a mobile robot with two steerable drive wheels

Abstract

A trigonometric method is proposed to calculate the pose (position and orientation) of a mobile robot, possessing a locomotion platform with a unique combination of two steerable and driven wheels and two caster wheels. The model of the locomotion platform is derived to deliver timely and accurate odometer information from measurements of drive wheel revolutions and steering angles. Non-systematic errors, mainly caused by wheel slippage, are detected by a new computation method based on the ratios between the two drive wheels' incremental distances. Real-world experiments validate the proposed model and the algorithm's ability to detect non-systematic errors.