Abstract
In order to transport materials flexibly and smoothly in a tight plant environment, an omni-directional mobile robot based on four Mecanum wheels was designed. The mechanical system of the mobile robot is made up of three separable layers so as to simplify its combination and reorganization. Each modularized wheel was installed on a vertical suspension mechanism, which ensures the moving stability and keeps the distances of four wheels invariable. The control system consists of two-level controllers that implement motion control and multi-sensor data processing, respectively. In order to make the mobile robot navigate in an unknown semi-structured indoor environment, the data from a Kinect visual sensor and four wheel encoders were fused to localize the mobile robot using an extended Kalman filter with specific processing. Finally, the mobile robot was integrated in an intelligent manufacturing system for material conveying. Experimental results show that the omni-directional mobile robot can move stably and autonomously in an indoor environment and in industrial fields.
Highlights
Intelligent manufacturing and logistics have motivated the development of mobile robot technology in recent years [1]
We focus on designing and developing an omni-directional mobile robot with four Mecanum wheels from the systematic point of view
If the mobile robot navigates based on a free path planned by the higher-level controller, multi-sensor data fusion algorithm will be used for localization
Summary
Intelligent manufacturing and logistics have motivated the development of mobile robot technology in recent years [1]. The steerable wheel has its own rotational mechanism, which can change its steering angle actively [9], while the omni-directional wheel uses a special wheel structure for flexible movement, examples of which include the Swedish wheel [10] and the Mecanum wheel. In order to convey materials flexibly and efficiently when facing multi-station and multi-task applications, intelligent mobile robots need to be specially developed so as to satisfy the whole system and the industrial environment. The data exchange between physical entities relies on unified interfaces and communication standards [21], which are difficult since many traditional physical entities need upgrades From this point of view, intelligent mobile robots oriented to IMS are very important components of smart factories and smart logistics. In order to navigate autonomously in unknown semi-structured indoor environment, data from wheel encoders and a Kinect visual sensor are fused to localize the mobile robot.
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