• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
• /
• v.7 no.9
• /
• pp.766-773
• /
• 2001

Omni-directional mobile robots have been popularly employed in several application areas. However, the kinematics for these systems have not been clearly identified, specially for redundantly actuated case which is common in omni-directional mobile robot such as the Nomadic model. For such mobile robot systems, exploitation of redundant actuation as well as singularity analysis has not been extensively addressed. In light of this fact, this paper introduces two different kinematic approaches for omni-directional mobile robots. Then, a singular-free load distribution scheme for redundantly actuated three-wheeled omni-directional mobile robot is proposed. Through simulation, several advantages of redundantly actuated mobile robot in aspect of singularity avoidance, minimization of torque norm, and exploiting several subtasks are presented.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Technology Engineers
• /
• v.23 no.4
• /
• pp.374-379
• /
• 2014

Mobile robots with omni-directional wheels can generate instant omni-directional motion without requiring extra space to change the direction of the body. Therefore, they are capable of moving in an arbitrary direction under any orientation even in narrow aisles or tight areas. In this research, an omni-directional mobile robot based on Mecanum wheels was developed to achieve omni-directionality. A CompactRIO embedded real-time controller and C series motion and I/O modules were employed in the control system design. Ultrasonic sensors installed on the front and lateral sides were utilized to measure the distance between the mobile robot and the side wall of a workspace. Through intensive experiments, a performance evaluation of the mobile robot was conducted to confirm its feasibility for industrial purposes. Mobility, omni-directionality, climbing capacity, and tracking performance of a squared trajectory were selected as performance indices to assess the omni-directional mobile robot.

• International Journal of Control, Automation, and Systems
• /
• v.1 no.3
• /
• pp.376-384
• /
• 2003

In this paper, the simple geometric kinematics of a three-wheeled holonomic mobile robot is proposed. Wheel architecture is developed for the holonomic mobile platform in order to provide omni-directional motions by three individually driven and steered wheels. Three types of basic motions are proposed for the path generation of the developed mobile robot. All paths of the mobile robot can be achieved through a combination of the proposed basic motion trajectories. The proposed method is verified through computer simulations and the developed mobile robot.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
• /
• v.13 no.11
• /
• pp.1082-1091
• /
• 2007

In this paper, we developed a new hybrid mobile robot which can climb stairs and go over thresholds by crawl gait with embedded real-time control software. This robot is also categorized into hybrid robot that has advantages of wheeled mobile robot and legged mobile robot, but adopts gait feature of crocodile named belly crawl. We imitated the belly crawl using four legs of 2 DOF, four omni-directional wheels, and embedded control software which controls legs and wheels. This software is developed using RTAI/Linux, real-time drivers. As a result, the new hybrid mobile robot has crawl gait. Using this feature, the new hybrid mobile robot can climb stairs and go over thresholds just by path planning of each leg with size of stairs and thresholds, and computing the movement distance of robot body center without considering stability. The performance of our new hybrid mobile robot is verified via experiments.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
• /
• v.13 no.4
• /
• pp.256-264
• /
• 2018

Unlike normal wheels, the Mecanum wheel enables omni-directional movement regardless of the orientation of a mobile robot. In this paper, a robust trajectory tracking control method is developed based on the dynamic model of the Mecanum wheel mobile robot in order that the mobile robot can move along the given path in the environment with disturbance. The method is designed using the impedance control to make the mobile robot to track the path, and the integral sliding mode control for robustness to disturbance. The good performance of the proposed method is verified using the MATLAB /Simulink simulation and also through the experiment on an actual Mecanum wheel mobile robot. In both the simulation and the experimentation, we make the mobile robot move along a reference trajectory while maintaining the robot's orientation at a constant angle to see the characteristics of the Mecanum wheel.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
• /
• v.18 no.5
• /
• pp.487-495
• /
• 2012

In this paper, a Smart Home Service Robot, McBot II, which performs mess-cleanup function etc. in house, is designed much more optimally than other service robots. It is newly developed in much more practical system than McBot I which we had developed two years ago. One characteristic attribute of mobile platforms equipped with a set of dependent wheels is their omni- directionality and the ability to realize complex translational and rotational trajectories for agile navigation in door. An accurate coordination of steering angle and spinning rate of each wheel is necessary for a consistent motion. This paper develops trajectory controller of 3-wheels omni-directional mobile robot using fuzzy azimuth estimator. A specialized anthropomorphic robot manipulator which can be attached to the housemaid robot McBot II, is developed in this paper. This built-in type manipulator consists of both arms with 4 DOF (Degree of Freedom) each and both hands with 3 DOF each. The robotic arm is optimally designed to satisfy both the minimum mechanical size and the maximum workspace. Minimum mass and length are required for the built-in cooperated-arms system. But that makes the workspace so small. This paper proposes optimal design method to overcome the problem by using neck joint to move the arms horizontally forward/backward and waist joint to move them vertically up/down. The robotic hand, which has two fingers and a thumb, is also optimally designed in task-based concept. Finally, the good performance of the developed McBot II is confirmed through live tests of the mess-cleanup task.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
• /
• v.17 no.1
• /
• pp.331-339
• /
• 2016

This paper developed a home wellness robot platform to perform the roles in basic health care and life care in an aging society. A robotic platform and a sensory platform were implemented for an indoor wellness service. In the robotic platform, the precise mobility and the dexterous manipulation are not only developed in a symbiotic service-robot, but they also ensure the robot architecture of human friendliness. The mobile robot was made in the agile system, which consists of Omni-wheels. The manipulator was made in the anthropomorphic system to carry out dexterous handwork. In the sensing platform, RF tags and stereo camera were used for self and target localization. They were processed independently and cooperatively for accurate position and posture. The wellness robot platform was integrated in a real-time system. Finally, its good performance was confirmed through live indoor tests for health and life care.