On the Kinematics of Wheeled Mobile Robots

A wheeled mobile robot is here modelled as a planar rigid body that rides on an arbitrary number of wheels. The rela tionship between the rigid body motion of the robot and the steering and drive rates of wheels is developed. In particular, conditions are obtained that guarantee that rolling without...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The International journal of robotics research 1989-10, Vol.8 (5), p.15-27
Main Authors: Alexander, J.C., Maddocks, J.H.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Applied sciences
Computer science
control theory
systems
Control theory. Systems
Exact sciences and technology
Robotics
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Summary:A wheeled mobile robot is here modelled as a planar rigid body that rides on an arbitrary number of wheels. The rela tionship between the rigid body motion of the robot and the steering and drive rates of wheels is developed. In particular, conditions are obtained that guarantee that rolling without skidding or sliding can occur. Explicit differential equations are derived to describe the rigid body motions that arise in such ideal rolling trajectories. The simplest wheel configura tion that permits access of arbitrary rigid-body motions is determined. Then the question of slippage due to misalign ment of the wheels is investigated by minimization of a non- smooth convex dissipation functional that is derived from Coulomb's Law offriction. It is shown that this minimization principle is equivalent to the construction of quasi-static motions. Examples are presented to illustrate the models.
ISSN:0278-3649
1741-3176
DOI:10.1177/027836498900800502