Basic Experiments on Measurement and Control of Position of Moving Robot with Encoders

Abstract

Deterioration of large infrastructures that were constructed in the period of rapid economic growth is becoming a big problem in Japan these days. One method to measure the deterioration is to use optical method that can measure deformation or strain of a structure from a position far from the structure, and the other is to use a robot that moves on the surface of the structure and measures the deterioration of it. When one uses a mobile robot to inspect the deterioration, it is necessary for the robot to detect its own position. The paper describes basic experiments on the detection of position of a mobile robot. Two rotary encoders are used to measure the position of the robot as a function of time. When the robot moves by 8.7 m in x-direction, the error Δy of the position in y-direction was about ±5 cm. In circular motion, the radius of real trajectory of the robot is approximately equal to the objective radius, whose error was 0.7% on the average.