Development of omni-directional mobile base with servo brakes for passive dance partner robot

In this research, we develop a passive dance partner robot for realizing the effective human-robot cooperation. Different from the active-type robot with servo motors, the passive robot is controlled by the servo brakes attached to the wheels of the robot and its driving force is the actual force/moment applied by a human. The maneuverability and the controllability of the passive robot are influenced by the original motion characteristics of the robot with respect to the human applied force. In this paper, we investigate the original motion characteristics of the omni-directional mobile base of the passive dance partner robot and consider the arrangement of the omni-directional wheels with servo brakes.