Abstract
Sphere-shaped robots are expected to be useful, in that they can move around in home or office environments without getting stuck, even in a dusty room with a lot of obstacles. In order to provides both omni-directional mobility and a large inner space, the authors have previously proposed a new driving scheme employing an omni-directional three-wheel internal unit. Then, a prototype robot was fabricated and constant speed movements were achieved experimentally. However, due to the phere shape, it is observed that the robot shakes largely when it stops running. Therefore in this presentation, reduction of swing movements after stopping is considered. First, a scheme is proposed in which the rolling and pitching angular velocities of the internal unit are measured using a gyro sensor and feedback to velocity reference signals for omni-wheels. Second, the scheme is implemented on the prototype robot. Finally, Experiments using the prototype are described which confirms the validity of the proposed scheme.
