Abstract
In this paper, we propose an omni-directional mechanism for a wheeled inverted pendulum type mobile platform. The omni-directional mechanism consists of three omni-directional wheels located at the bottom of the mobile platform. The two wheels are located at the left and right side of the platform as a conventional two-wheeled mobile platform, and other one is located between the two wheels, which has an axis perpendicular to those of two wheels. The grounding points of all wheels are on the same line in order to realize balancing control. A simple driving experiment was conducted to examine the driving performance, and it was confirmed that the proposed mobile platform could realize an omni-directional motion while maintaing its balance.
