Development of a Small Omni-Directional Mobile Robot

Abstract

The omni-directional mobile mechanism realizes versatile motion for the mobile robot. A number of such mechanisms have been proposed. Among them, the mobile robot ZEN has 3 DoF decoupled driving mechanisms and is considered to be superior the others in its simple kinematics and control. However, ZEN's transmission mechanism uses many gear trains, thus, is not very effecient. This paper proposes a new, improved mechanism which is smaller, lighter, and more effecient.