Omnidirectional Mobile Robot – Design and Implementation

Industrial and technical applications of mobile robots are continuously gaining in importance. They are already widely used for surveillance, inspection and transportation tasks. A further emerging market is that of mobile entertainment robots. One of the main requirements of an autonomous mobile robot is its ability to move through the operational space, avoiding obstacles and finding its way to the next location, in order to perform its task, capabilities known as localization and navigation. In order to know where to go, the robot must have accurate knowledge of its current location. It means, it should use a great variety of sensors, external references and algorithms. In order to move in tight areas and to avoid obstacles mobile robots should have good mobility and maneuverability. These capabilities mainly depend on the wheels design. Research is continuously going on in this field, to improve the autonomous navigation capability of mobile robotic systems. This chapter introduces an omnidirectional mobile robot for educational purposes. The robot has full omnidirectional motion capabilities, thanks to its special Mecanum wheels. The present chapter provides some information about conventional and special wheels designs, mechanical design aspects of the Mecanum wheel and also of the robot, kinematic models, as well as electronics and control strategies: remote control, line follow, autonomous strategy. Thanks to its motion capabilities and to its different control possibilities, the robot discussed in this chapter could be used as an interesting educational platform. This report is the result of a research conducted at the Robotics Laboratory of the Mechanical Engineering Faculty, “Gh. Asachi” Technical University of Iasi, Romania.