Motion Analysis of an Omnidirectional Mobile Robot with Wheels Connected by Passive Sliding Joints

In order to solve problems of conventional mobile robots, such as limited mobility and complicated structure, we proposed a novel omnidirectional mobile robot named slidable-wheeled omnidirectional mobile robot (SWOM). SWOM has three wheels connected to the main body by passive sliding joints, which enable SWOM to make an omnidirectional movement. The wheels of SWOM are all normal wheels, so SWOM achieves both superb mobility and a simple structure. In the movement of SWOM, its features vary depending on the steering angles and the relative positions of the wheels. We attempt to evaluate these effects quantitatively in this research. This paper describes the structure and movement of SWOM first. Then, a velocity analysis is carried out based on the kinematics and the characteristics of the input-output relation are discussed. The experiments are conducted by using the prototype to show that SWOM performs as expected.