Complete Identification of Isotropic Configurations of a Caster Wheeled Mobile Robot with Nonredundant/Redundant Actuation

In this paper, we present the complete isotropy analysis of a caster wheeled omnidirectional mobile robot (COMR) with nonredundant/redundant actuation. It is desirable for robust motion control to keep a COMR close to the isotropy but away from the singularity as much as possible. First, with the characteristic length introduced, the kinematic model of a COMR is obtained based on the orthogonal decomposition of the wheel velocities. Second, a general form of the isotropy conditions of a COMR is given in terms of physically meaningful vector quantities which specify the wheel configuration. Third, for all possible nonredundant and redundant actuation sets, the algebraic expressions of the isotropy conditions are derived so as to identify the isotropic configurations of a COMR. Fourth, the number of the isotropic configurations, the isotropic characteristic length, and the optimal initial configuration are discussed.