One of the most important reasons for the popularity of mobile robots in industrial manufacturing is their capability to move and operate freely. In order for the robots to perform to the expectations in manufacturing, their position and orientation must be determined accurately. In addition, there is a strong tendency to grant more autonomy to robots when they operate in hazardous or unknown e...

A GA-based fuzzy controller design method is proposed for a two-wheeled mobile robot to independently control two velocities of its left-wheeled motor and right-wheeled motor so that the controlled robot can move fast and efficiently to the desired position. First, the kinematics model of the considered two-wheeled robot is described and a 4-input-and-2-output motion fuzzy control structure wit...

The most relevant differences existing between wheeled and legged robots, from the point of view of the expected navigation tasks to be performed using each kind of locomotion, are reviewed. We propose a new framework for legged robot navigation that replaces many implicit assumptions usually made for wheeled robots by new ones that are better suited to legged robots. Based on this, specific te...

A key methodology for the development of autonomous robots is testing using simulated robot motion and sensing systems. An important issue when simulating teams of heterogeneous autonomous robots is performance versus accuracy. In this paper the multi-robot-simulation framework (MuRoSimF) is presented which allows the flexible and transparent exchange and combination of the algorithms used for ...

The paper considers a specific class of wheeled mobile robots referred to as mobile wheeled pendulums (MWP). Robots pertaining to this class are composed of two wheels rotating about a central body. The main feature of the MWP pertains to the central body, which can rotate about the wheel axes. As such motion is undesirable, the problem of the stabilization of the central body in MWP is crucial...

Over the last few years there have been great developments and improvements in the mobile robotics field, oriented to replace human operators especially in dangerous tasks, such as mine-sweeping operations, rescuing after earthquakes or other catastrophic events, fire-fighting operations, working inside nuclear power stations and exploration of unknown environments. Different locomotion systems...

The stability of the internal dynamics of a wheeled mobile robot is analyzed. It is shown that the wheeled mobile robot exhibits unstable internal dynamics when moving backwards. Most control methods of wheeled mobile robots are designed based on input-output relations. Since the internal dynamics are not represented in input-output relations, stability properties of the internal dynamics are g...