Vehicle control based on body configuration

Abstract

In our current research, we are developing a holonomic mobile system which is capable of running over the step. This system realizes omni-directional motion on flat floor using special wheels and passes over non-flat ground in forward or backward direction using the passive suspension mechanism. The vehicle changes its body shape according to ground condition when it runs over the rough terrain. This paper proposes a new wheel control method according to the change of the vehicle's body shape for passing over the step. Our key idea is the modification of its kinematic model referring to the body configuration dynamically and using this model for wheel control of the vehicle. The controller can adjust the wheel control references when the vehicle passes over the rough terrain changing the body shape and can reduce the slippage and the rotation error of the wheels. The performance of our proposed method is experimented by computer simulations and experiments.