Development of an Omni-Directional Mobile Robot with 3 DoF Decoupling Drive Mechanism

Abstract

A new driving mechanism for holonomic omni-directional mobile robots is designed, which enables 3 DoF (degrees of freedom) motion control in two dimensional space by three correspondent actuators in a decoupled manner without redundancy. The kinematics of the omni-directional mobile robot is also analyzed to prove that driving motion by the actuators is decoupled by the developed mechanism into 3 DoF motion of the robot. A prototype of the omni-directional mobile robot with the driving mechanism is developed including a parallel link suspension mechanism. Finally, the performance of the prototype robot is shown through experimental results, by which the working of the designed mechanism is verified.