Development of Autonomous Mobile Robot Platform Equipped with a Drive Unit Consisting of Low-End In-Wheel Motors

In the near future, autonomous mobile robots are expected to operate effectively in various locations, such as in living spaces as well as in industrial establishments. Against this background, a new autonomous mobile robot platform was designed and prototyped in this research. The robot consists of two low-end in-wheel motors for the sake of simplicity of the design and assembly of the drive units. It is also effective in space-saving, and for high power and travelability for various road surface conditions. This paper presents the concept for developing the new type of autonomous mobile robot platform, its control system for autonomous operation, and its driving experiments to verify the autonomous traveling performance.