CHAPTER 3

MOBILE ROBOT DESIGN

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3.1 CONCEPT OF MOBILE ROBOT

DRIVING DESIGN
3.1.1 Robot driving methods

There are several ways of driving mobile

robots. They are:
a. Single wheel drive
b. Differential drive
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a. Single wheel drive

Having a single wheel that is both driven and

steered is the simplest conceptual design for
a mobile robot. This design also requires two
passive caster wheels in the back, since
three contact points are always required.
Linear velocity and angular velocity of the
robot are completely decoupled.

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So for driving straight, the front wheel is

positioned in the middle position and driven
at the desired speed. For driving in a curve,
the wheel is positioned at an angle
matching the desired curve.

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Figure 1: Driving and rotation of single wheel drive

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Figure 1 shows the driving action for

different steering settings. Curve driving is
following the arc of a circle; however, this
robot design cannot turn on the spot. With
the front wheel set to 90 the robot will
rotate about the midpoint between the two
caster wheels (see Figure 1, right). So the
minimum turning radius is the distance
between the front wheel and midpoint of the
back wheels.
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b. Differential drive

The differential drive design has two motors mounted in

fixed positions on the left and right side of the robot,
independently driving one wheel each. Since three ground
contact points are necessary, this design requires one or
two additional passive caster wheels or sliders, depending
on the location of the driven wheels. Differential drive is
mechanically simpler than the single wheel drive, because
it does not require rotation of a driven axis. However,
driving control for differential drive is more complex than
for single wheel drive, because it requires the
coordination of two driven wheels.
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The minimal differential drive design with

only a single passive wheel cannot have the
driving wheels in the middle of the robot,
for stability reasons. So when turning on the
spot, the robot will rotate about the offcenter midpoint between the two driven
wheels. The design with two passive wheels
or sliders, one each in the front and at the
back of the robot, allows rotation about the
center of the robot. However, this design
can introduce surface contact problems,
because it is using four contact points.
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Figure 2 demonstrates the driving actions of

a differential drive robot. If both motors run
at the same speed, the robot drives straight
forward or backward, if one motor is
running faster than the other, the robot
drives in a curve along the arc of a circle,
and if both motors are run at the same
speed in opposite directions, the robot turns
on the spot.

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Figure 2: Driving and rotation of differential

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Driving straight, forward: vL = vR, vL > 0

Driving in a right curve: vL > vR, e.g. vL = 2vR
Turning on the spot, counter-clockwise: vL = vR,
vL > 0

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3.2

Mobile robot types

3.2.1 Omni-directional robots:

a. Mecanum Wheels

The marvel behind the omni-directional drive design

presented in this chapter are Mecanum wheels. This
wheel design has been developed and patented by
the Swedish company Mecanum AB with Bengt Ilon
in 1973 [Jonsson 1987], so it has been around for
quite a while. Further details on Mecanum wheels
and omni-directional drives can be found in [Carlisle
1983], [Agullo, Cardona, Vivancos 1987], and
[Dickerson, Lapin 1991].
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Figure 3: Mecanum wheel designs with rollers at

45
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There are a number of different Mecanum wheel

variations; Figure 3 shows two of the designs.
Each wheels surface is covered with a number
of free rolling cylinders. It is important to stress
that the wheel hub is driven by a motor, but the
rollers on the wheel surface are not. These are
held in place by ball-bearings and can freely
rotate about their axis. While the wheels in
Figure 3 have the rollers at +/ 45 and there is
a left-hand and a right-hand version of this
wheel type, there are also Mecanum wheels
with rollers set at 90 (Figure 4), and these do
not require left-hand/right-hand versions.
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A Mecanum-based robot can be constructed
with either three or four independently
driven Mecanum wheels. Vehicle designs
with three Mecanum wheels require wheels
with rollers set at 90 to the wheel axis,
while the design we are following here is
based on four Mecanum wheels and
requires the rollers to be at an angle of 45
to the wheel axis. For the construction of a
robot with four Mecanum wheels, two lefthanded wheels (rollers at +45 to the wheel
axis) and two right-handed wheels (rollers
at 45 to the wheel axis) are required (see
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Figure 4: Mecanum wheel designs with rollers

at 90
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Although the rollers are freely rotating, this does not

mean the robot is spinning its wheels and not
moving. This would only be the case if the rollers
were placed parallel to the wheel axis. However, our
Mecanum wheels have the rollers placed at an angle
(45 in Figure 3). Looking at an individual wheel
(Figure 6, view from the bottom through a glass
floor), the force generated by the wheel rotation
acts on the ground through the one roller that has
ground contact. At this roller, the force can be split
in a vector parallel to the roller axis and a vector
perpendicular to the roller axis. The force
perpendicular to the roller axis will result in a small
roller rotation, while the force parallel to the roller
axis will exert a force on the wheel and thereby on
vehicle.
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Since Mecanum wheels do not appear

individually, but e.g. in a four wheel
assembly, the resulting wheel forces at 45
from each wheel have to be combined to
determine the overall vehicle motion. If the
two wheels shown in Figure 6 are the
robots front wheels and both are rotated
forward, then each of the two resulting 45
force vectors can be split into a forward and
a sideways force. The two forward forces
add up, while the two sideways forces (one
to the left and one to the right) cancel each
other out.

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Figure 5: 3-wheel and 4-wheel omni-directional

vehicles
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Figure 6: Mecanum principle, vector decomposition

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b. Omni-directional Drive Principle

Figure 7, left, shows the situation for the full

robot with four independently driven
Mecanum wheels. In the same situation as
before, i.e. all four wheels being driven
forward, we now have four vectors pointing
forward that are added up and four vectors
pointing sideways, two to the left and two
to the right, that cancel each other out.
Therefore, although the vehicles chassis is
subjected to additional perpendicular
forces, the vehicle will simply drive straight
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Figure 7: Mecanum principle, driving forward and

sliding sideways; dark wheels rotate forward, bright
wheels backward (seen from below)
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In Figure 7, right, assume wheels 1 and 4
are driven backward, and wheels 2 and 4
are driven forward. In this case, all
forward/backward velocities cancel each
other out, but the four vector components
to the left add up and let the vehicle slide
to the left.

The third case is shown in Figure 8. No

vector decomposition is necessary in this
case to reveal the overall vehicle motion. It
can be clearly seen that the robot motion
will be a clockwise rotation about its center.
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Figure 8: Mecanum principle, turning clockwise (seen from

below)
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The following list shows the basic motions, driving
forward, driving sideways, and turning on the spot, with
their corresponding wheel directions (see Figure 9).

Driving forward:
all four wheels forward
Driving backward:
all four wheels backward
Sliding left:
1, 4: backward; 2, 3: forward
Sliding right:
1, 4: forward; 2. 3: backward
Turning clockwise on the spot:
1, 3: forward; 2, 4:
backward
Turning counter-clockwise:
1, 3: backward; 2, 4:
forward

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Figure 9: Kinematics of omni-directional robot

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3.2.2

Balancing Robot

a. Balancing robot based on inverted pendulum

An inverted pendulum is a pendulum which has its mass

above its pivot point. It is often implemented with the
pivot point mounted on a cart that can move horizontally
and may be called a cart and pole. Most applications limit
the pendulum to 1 degree of freedom by affixing the pole
to an axis of rotation. Whereas a normal pendulum is
stable when hanging downwards, an inverted pendulum is
inherently unstable, and must be actively balanced in
order to remain upright; this can be done either by
applying a torque at the pivot point, by moving the pivot
point horizontally as part of a feedback system, changing
the rate of rotation of a mass mounted on the pendulum
on an axis parallel to the pivot axis and thereby
generating a net torque on the pendulum, or by oscillating
the pivot point vertically.
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A simple demonstration of moving the pivot point in a

feedback system is achieved by balancing an upturned
broomstick on the end of one's finger. The inverted
pendulum is a classic problem in dynamics and control
theory and is used as a benchmark for testing control
strategies.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_pendulum)

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The basic idea for a two-wheeled dynamically balancing
robot is pretty simple: drive the wheels in the direction
that the upper part of the robot is falling. If the wheels can
be driven in such a way as to stay under the robot's center
of gravity, the robot remains balanced. In practice this
requires two feedback sensors: a tilt or angle sensor to
measure the tilt of the robot with respect to gravity, and
wheel encoders to measure the position of the base of the
robot. Four terms are sufficient to define the motion and
position of this "inverted pendulum" and thereby balance
the robot. These are 1) the tilt angle and 2) its first
derivative, the angle velocity, and 3) the platform position
and 4) its first derivative, the platform velocity. These four
measurements are summed and fed back to the platform
as a motor voltage, which is proportional to torque, to
balance and drive the robot.
(http://www.geology.smu.edu/~dpa-www/robo/nbot/)
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Figure 10: Balancing robot design

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b. Sensor used in robot balancing

To balance a robot, several sensors need to be used.

Among of them are tilt sensors, inclinometers,
accelerometers, gyroscopes, and ultrasonic sensor.

i. Tilt sensor
A tilt sensor can measure the tilting in often two axes of a
reference plane in two axes. In contrast, a full motion
would use at least three axes and often additional sensors.
One way to measure tilt angle with reference to the earths
ground plane, is to use an accelerometer. Typical
applications can be found in the industry and in game
controllers.

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ii. Gyroscope
The gyroscope modifies a servo control signal by an
amount proportional to its measure of angular velocity.
Instead of using the gyro to control a servo, we read back
the modified servo signal to obtain a measurement of
angular velocity. An estimate of angular displacement is
obtained by integrating the velocity signal over time.

iii. Accelerometer
These sensors output an analog signal, proportional to the
acceleration in the direction of the sensors axis of
sensitivity. Mounting two acceleration sensors at 90
angles means that we can measure the translational
acceleration experienced by the sensors in the plane
through which the robot moves. Since gravity provides a
significant component of this acceleration, we are able to
estimate the orientation of the robot.
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iv. Inclinometer
An inclinometer is used to support the gyroscope.
Although the inclinometer cannot be used alone because
of its time lag, it can be used to reset the software
integration of the gyroscope data when the robot is close
to resting in an upright position.

v. Ultrasonic sensor
The ultrasonic sensor is used to read the distance to the
ground and command the servos to move until the
distance becomes equal to the preset value for a perfect
balance.

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3.2.3

Walking Robot

a. The Importance of Walking Robot

Walking robots are an important alternative to driving

robots, since the majority of the worlds land area is
unpaved. Although driving robots are more specialized and
better adapted to flat surfaces they can drive faster and
navigate with higher precision walking robots can be
employed in more general environments. Walking robots
follow nature by being able to navigate rough terrain, or
even climb stairs or over obstacles in a standard
household situation, which would rule out most driving
robots.

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Robots with six or more legs have the advantage of
stability. In a typical walking pattern of a six-legged robot,
three legs are on the ground at all times, while three legs
are moving. This gives static balance while walking,
provided the robots center of mass is within the triangle
formed by the three legs on the ground. Four-legged
robots are considerably harder to balance, but are still
fairly simple when compared to the dynamics of biped
robots. Biped robots are the most difficult to balance, with
only one leg on the ground and one leg in the air during
walking. Static balance for biped robots can be achieved if
the robots feet are relatively large and the ground contact
areas of both feet are overlapping. However, this is not the
case in human-like android robots, which require
dynamic balance for walking.

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b. Six-Legged Walking Robot Design

A robot that walks on six legs is known as a hexapod

robot. Since a robot can be statically stable on three or
more legs, a hexapod robot has a great deal of flexibility in
how it can move. If legs become disabled, the robot may
still be able to walk. Furthermore, not all of the robot's legs
are needed for stability; other legs are free to reach new
foot placements or manipulate a payload.
Typically, individual legs range from two to six degrees of
freedom. Hexapod feet are typically pointed, but can also
be tipped with adhesive material to help climb walls or
wheels so the robot can drive quickly when the ground is
flat.

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Most often, hexapods are controlled by gaits, which allow
the robot to move forward, turn, and perhaps side-step.
Some of the most common gaits are as follows:

Alternating tripod: 3 legs on the ground at a time.

Quadruped.
Crawl: move just one leg at a time.

Gaits for hexapods are often stable, even in slightly rocky

and uneven terrain. Motion may also be nongaited, which
means the sequence of leg motions is not fixed, but rather
chosen by the computer in response to the sensed
environment. This may be most helpful in very rocky
terrain, but existing techniques for motion planning are
computationally expensive.

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c.

Biped Walking Robot

A biped walking robot or humanoid robot or an

anthropomorphic robot is a robot with its body shape built
to resemble that of the human body. A humanoid design
might be for functional purposes, such as interacting with
human tools and environments, for experimental
purposes, such as the study of bipedal locomotion, or for
other purposes. In general, humanoid robots have a torso,
a head, two arms, and two legs, though some forms of
humanoid robots may model only part of the body, for
example, from the waist up. Some humanoid robots may
also have heads designed to replicate human facial
features such as eyes and mouths. Androids are humanoid
robots built to aesthetically resemble humans.

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