Design and Control of a Four‐Wheeled Omnidirectional Mobile Robot with Steerable Omnidirectional Wheels

Omnidirectional mobile robots are capable of arbitrary motion in an arbitrary direction without changing the direction of wheels, because they can perform 3 degree‐of‐freedom (DOF) motion on a two‐dimensional plane. In this research, a new class of omnidirectional mobile robot is proposed. Since it has synchronously steerable omnidirectional wheels, it is called an omnidirectional mobile robot with steerable omnidirectional wheels (OMR‐SOW). It has 3 DOFs in motion and one DOF in steering. One steering DOF can function as a continuously variable transmission (CVT). CVT of the OMR‐SOW increases the range of velocity ratio from the wheel velocities to robot velocity, which may improve performance of the mobile robot. The OMR‐SOW with four omnidirectional wheels has been developed in this research. Kinematics and dynamics of this robot will be analyzed in detail. Various tests have been conducted to demonstrate the validity and feasibility of the proposed mechanism and control algorithm. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Introducing Climax: A novel strategy to a tri-wheel spiral robot

This paper describes a prototype and analytical studies of a tri-wheel spiral mobile robot. The robot can reach any desired point with a sequence of rotational movements. The robot has a simple actuation mechanism, consisting of three wheels mounted on a platform with axes fixed in 120° and a motor connected to each. Our approach introduces several new features such as simple repeated sequence of commands for steering and spiral motion, versus direct movement to target. The mathematical model of the robot is discussed, and a steering method is developed to achieve full motion capabilities. For a number of missions, it is shown experimentally that the proposed motion planning agrees well with the results.     

Estimation of attraction domains in wheeled robot control

Considered is the control design problem for planar motion of a wheeled robot. The mathematical model of the robot accounts for kinematic relationships between the velocity of a given point of chassis referred to as the reference point, orientation of the chassis, and control. Among the kinematic relations is the requirement that each of the four wheels perform a slip-free motion. The rear wheels are assumed to be driving while the front wheels are responsible for the rotation of the chassis. The control objective is to place the reference point in the prespecified trajectory and to stabilize the motion of the reference point along the prespecified trajectory. The trajectory consists of line segments and circular arcs. In the mathematical model under consideration, the current curvature of the trajectory of the reference point is taken as control; it is related to the steering angle of the front wheels by a simple algebraic expression. The control is subject to two-sided constraints due to limitations on the steering angle of the front wheels. For the control law proposed, the attraction domain in the space “distance to the trajectory—orientation” is analyzed. For the initial conditions from this domain, the system is guaranteed to hit a trajectory with given index of exponential stability.     

Design,control, and performance of the ‘weed’ 6 wheel robot in the UK MOD grand challenge

A new locomotion method for unmanned (autonomous) ground vehicles (UGV) is proposed based around six independently driven wheels mounted on three separate modules. Each module is attached to the overall robot via a pivot point and capable of independently controlling its orientation and velocity. This configuration allows the UGV to perform maneuvers conventional vehicles cannot perform, and in particular to control the body orientation separately from the movement direction. The locomotion method is mathematically analyzed to develop appropriate control algorithms and to demonstrate the vehicle performance criteria. A vehicle was constructed according to the proposed configuration and experimentally tested in the UK Ministry Of Defense grand challenge. The performance of the developed locomotion schemes helped the robot make it to the finale of the competition.     

一种柔性前臂机械手控制算法*

本文研究柔性机器人的轨迹跟踪控制问题，通过坐标变换导出以可测关节角为变量的柔性机器人的动态模型，在Ｄｅｌｕｃａ等人提出的ＣＴＪ控制算法基础上提出一种改进的计算力矩控制算法ＩＣＴＪ，并从理论上证明了新算法的收敛性，仿真结果表明ＩＣＴＪ算法比ＣＴＪ算法在跟踪精度有明显的改善。     

移动机器人的在线实时定位研究

对推算定位法进行了研究,提出了一种改进方案.通过对移动机器人运动轨迹与状态的 分析,导出了一类移动机器人的基于轨迹的运动学新模型.利用移动机器人三个轮子的里程信息 和导向轮的转角信息,通过信息模糊融合获得转弯半径和转角,再利用运动学模型获得机器人的 位置和方向.将这种改进的推算定位法与主动灯塔法相结合,提出了一种用于室内移动机器人的 定位方法.仿真结果表明,该方法具有实时性好、精度高、成本低、鲁棒性好等特点,并适用于不平 整地面.     

基于模型预测—中枢模式发生器的六足机器人轨迹跟踪控制

为了模仿动物卓越的运动能力和环境适应能力,提出了六足仿生机器人的轨迹跟踪控制方法。首先建立了机器人的运动学模型,接着通过转向参数将机器人的速度和角速度与中枢模式发生器（CPG）参数结合起来,设计了转换函数。然后通过转换函数将模型预测控制器和CPG网络结合起来,提出了基于CPG的模型预测控制器（MPC-CPG）,并证明了其稳定性。最后对机器人跟踪圆周轨迹和直线轨迹进行了仿真和实验。实验表明,在有初始误差的条件下,机器人在MPC-CPG控制器的作用下能够快速地消除位置误差和航向角误差,跟踪上参考轨迹。轨迹跟踪的位置误差始终保持在-0.1～0.1 m,航向角误差保持在-27?～20?。在MPC-CPG控制器的作用下,机器人不仅具有较高的轨迹跟踪精度,同时还表现出良好的运动平滑性和协调性,进一步验证了所提出的MPC-CPG控制器的有效性。     

非同轴两轮机器人自平衡与转向闭环控制

针对车速、车身侧倾角和前轮转角变化较大工况下的非同轴两轮机器人在基于前轮转角的自平衡控制中,因动力学模型准确性对自平衡控制带来的影响,设计了基于RBF神经网络模糊滑模控制的自平衡控制器,利用RBF神经网络的逼近特性,对动力学模型中非线性时变的不确定部分进行自适应逼近,从而提高动力学模型的准确性,并借助模糊规则削弱滑模控制中产生的系统抖振;以及因前轮转角用于自平衡控制中难以实现转向闭环控制,建立了基于纯跟踪法的轨迹跟踪控制器,并设计利用车身平衡时车身侧倾角与前轮转角的耦合关系,将转向闭环控制中的目标前轮转角替换为目标车身侧倾角,从而将自平衡控制器与轨迹跟踪控制器相结合,在保证车身平衡行驶的前提下,实现带有轨迹跟踪的转向闭环控制。实验结果表明,凭借动力学模型的较高准确性,RBF神经网络模糊滑模自平衡控制器具有鲁棒性好、超调量低和响应迅速的优点,并且利用车身平衡后车身侧倾角与前轮转角耦合关系,实现转向闭环控制是可行的,具有良好的轨迹跟踪效果。     

具有MY轮的全方位移动机器人运动学研究

根据MY轮的结构特点建立了由MY轮组成的全方位移动机器人的运动学模型.分析了由于轮结构带来的运动学特性.对全方位移动机器人在运动过程中的振动、控制及误差进行了深入研究.提出了通过优化接触距离及MY轮转速来减小机器人运动误差的控制方法.为获得优化结构,比较了三轮结构和四轮结构的运动学特性.同时应用正弦控制规律来合理控制MY轮的转动,改善了机器人的运动稳定性.仿真结果充分证明了分析的正确性.     

Smooth control of an articulated mobile robot with switching constraints

The paper describes a smooth controller of an articulated mobile robot with switching constraints. The use of switching constraints associated with grounded/lifted wheels is an effective method of controlling various motions; e.g. the avoidance of a moving obstacle. A model of an articulated mobile robot that has active and passive wheels and active joints with switching constraints is derived. A controller that accomplishes the trajectory tracking of the robot’s head and subtasks using smooth joint input is proposed on the basis of the model. Simulations and experiments are presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed controller.     

An efficient steering control formulation for the articulated body mobile robot “KR-II”

This paper introduces an efficient steering control method for the articulated body mobile robot Koryu-II (KR-II). KR-II is a real robot, composed of six cylindrical segments linked in series and has a long snake-like appearance. The main issue on KR-II's steering control is, given from a remote human operator the velocity and orientation commands for the foremost segment, to automatically generate joint commands for all the following segments, such that they follow the foremost segment's trajectory. The derived method is based on a trajectory planning scheme in the inertial reference frame, and is feasible for real time computation. It also presents good energy efficiency and trajectory tracking performance characteristics, and can be extended for KR-II's W-Shaped Configuration steering control, which augments the lateral stability of the robot, essential for locomotion over uneven terrain. The validity of these methods are verified by experiments on the mechanical model KR-II.     

Fuzzy Decentralized Sliding-Mode Control of a Car-Like Mobile Robot in Distributed Sensor-Network Spaces

In this paper, the trajectory tracking and (dynamic) obstacle avoidance of a car-like mobile robot (CLMR) within distributed sensor-network spaces via fuzzy decentralized sliding-mode control (FDSMC) is developed. To implement trajectory tracking and (dynamic) obstacle avoidance, two distributed charge-coupled device (CCD) cameras are set up to realize the dynamic position of the CLMR and the obstacle. Based on the control authority of these two CCD cameras, a suitable reference trajectory including desired steering angle and forward-backward velocity for the proposed controller of the CLMR is planned. It is also transmitted to the CLMR by a wireless module. The proposed FDSMC can track a reference trajectory without the requirement of a mathematical model. Only the input-output data pairs of the CLMR and the upper bound of its dynamics are required for the selection of suitable scaling factors. The proposed control system includes two processors with multiple sampling rates. One is a personal computer employed to obtain the image of the CLMR and the obstacle, to plan a reference trajectory for the CLMR, and then to transmit the planned reference trajectory to the CLMR. The other is a digital signal processor (DSP) implementing in the CLMR to control two dc motors. Finally, a sequence of experiments is carried out to confirm the performance of the proposed control system.     

Odometry based pose determination and errors measurement for a mobile robot with two steerable drive wheels

A trigonometric method is proposed to calculate the pose (position and orientation) of a mobile robot, possessing a locomotion platform with a unique combination of two steerable and driven wheels and two caster wheels. The model of the locomotion platform is derived to deliver timely and accurate odometer information from measurements of drive wheel revolutions and steering angles. Non-systematic errors, mainly caused by wheel slippage, are detected by a new computation method based on the ratios between the two drive wheels’ incremental distances. Real-world experiments validate the proposed model and the algorithm’s ability to detect non-systematic errors.     

Decoupling control for spatial six-degree-of-freedom electro-hydraulic parallel robot

This paper presents a decoupling controller equipped with cross-coupling pre-compensation for an electro-hydraulic parallel robot, in order to weaken system dynamic coupling effects usually ignored on the design of advanced controllers and improve system control performance. The mathematical model of the electro-hydraulic parallel robot is built using the Kane method and a hydromechanics approach, and the kinematical model is established with a closed-form solution and the Newton-Raphson method. The feedback linearization theory is applied to reduce coupling effects stemmed from system dynamics of the parallel robot via incorporating force-velocity control with cross-coupling pre-compensations. The control performance involving stability, accuracy, and robustness of the proposed controller for spatial 6-DOF parallel robot is analyzed in theory and experiment. The experimental results illustrate that the proposed controller can highly improve the control performance by weakening system dynamic coupling effects of the electro-hydraulic parallel robot, especially for trajectory tracking performance.     

基于改进动态窗口法的户外清扫机器人局部路径规划

针对清扫机器人在停车场结构化路面下存在的加速度过大、路径偏离全局路径过大等问题,提出了一种改进的动态窗口法（DWA）．首先,为了限制小车加速度的范围,对DWA速度空间的动力学约束进行优化,避免出现过大的加速度导致轮胎垂直载荷过小的状况．然后,基于激光里程计对轨迹推算环节进行实时误差补偿,解决停车场路面下路径偏离全局路径较大的问题．最后将改进的DWA应用于四轮独立驱动、独立转向的清扫机器人上进行对比实验．实验结果表明,在相同的全局路径、相同的路况下,改进DWA的路径平均误差较传统DWA减小了约60%,轮胎垂直载荷在不同路况下也大大提高,验证了本文方法的有效性和可靠性．     

移动机器人轨迹跟踪的参数自校正控制

根据移动机器人运动学模型,对两轮移动机器人的轨迹跟踪问题进行了研究。在动态反馈线性化的基础上,采用基于广义最小方差法实现参数的自校正并设计控制器,考虑到机器人的动力学约束,采取对移动机器人的线速度和角速度加以限制的控制策略,保证机器人的运动平滑。仿真结果表明了该方法的有效性和正确性。     

基于动力学模型的轮式移动机器人电机控制

针对移动机器人两路电机协同控制问题,提出基于动力学模型的轮式移动机器人电机控制律 （DMMC）．首先推导出质心位置不一定在几何中心的移动机器人运动学模型和动力学模型,并求解出两轮速 度与力矩之间的非线性微分方程．然后,基于两轮速度与力矩间非线性微分方程、电机电气方程和电机机电 方程,推导出移动机器人系统状态方程．最后采用极点配置得到I 型状态反馈控制律．仿真显示,DMMC 法实 现了对输入指令的零稳态误差快速响应．     

An online collision-free trajectory generation algorithm for human–robot collaboration

The premise of human–robot collaboration is that robots have adaptive trajectory planning strategies in hybrid work cell. The aim of this paper is to propose a new online collision avoidance trajectory planning algorithm for moderate dynamic environments to insure human safety when sharing collaborative tasks. The algorithm contains two parts: trajectory generation and local optimization. Firstly, based on empirical Dirichlet Process Gaussian Mixture Model (DPGMM) distribution learning, a neural network trajectory planner called Collaborative Waypoint Planning network (CWP-net) is proposed to generate all key waypoints required for dynamic obstacle avoidance in joint space according to environmental inputs. These points are used to generate quintic spline smooth motion trajectories with velocity and acceleration constraints. Secondly, we present an improved Stochastic Trajectory Optimization for Motion Planning (STOMP) algorithm which locally optimizes the generated trajectories of CWP-net by constraining the trajectory optimization range and direction through the DPGMM model. Simulations and real experiments from an industrial use case of human–robot collaboration in the field of aircraft assembly testing show that the proposed algorithm can smoothly adjust the nominal path online and effectively avoid collisions during the collaboration.     

Dynamic Model and Control for a Holonomic Omnidirectional Mobile Robot

In the recent past, mobile robots with high mobility have been developed actively. We have already proposed a holonomic and omnidirectional mobile robot using two active dual-wheel caster assemblies and also derived the kinematic models for the assembly and the mobile robot. This paper presents dynamic analysis and control for the mobile robot. The dynamic model has been derived based on the forces acting on the steering axis. Then a model-based resolved acceleration controller is constructed. The validity of the model and the effectiveness of the control system are confirmed by experiments using a prototype robot as well as simulations.