Abstract:

The presented paper focuses on the kinematic study of four-wheeled robots, which have full omnidirectional motion capabilities. In the first part, the robot is equipped with omnidirectional Mecanum wheels. The special feature of the investigations is the fact that the angles between rollers and the wheel plane can be controlled. In the second part, a specific chassis based on the differential drive principle is considered. The drive module is discussed from the kinematical point of view. Based on this module, a wheel-driven mobile system with omnidirectional movement possibility can be developed, which has the necessary lateral dynamic properties for lane keeping driving. Results of numerical simulations show the possibilities of omnidirectional motion of the robot.

Keywords: Mecanum wheel; chassis concept; mobile robots; kinematics; nonholonomic systems