A caster-wheel-aware MPC-based motion planner for mobile robotics
2021 (English)In: 2021 20Th International Conference On Advanced Robotics (ICAR), Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) , 2021, p. 613-618Conference paper, Published paper (Refereed)
Abstract [en]
Differential drive mobile robots often use one or more caster wheels for balance. Caster wheels are appreciated for their ability to turn in any direction almost on the spot, allowing the robot to do the same and thereby greatly simplifying the motion planning and control. However, in aligning the caster wheels to the intended direction of motion they produce a so-called bore torque. As a result, additional motor torque is required to move the robot, which may in some cases exceed the motor capacity or compromise the motion planner's accuracy. Instead of taking a decoupled approach, where the navigation and disturbance rejection algorithms are separated, we propose to embed the caster wheel awareness into the motion planner. To do so, we present a caster-wheel-aware term that is compatible with MPC-based control methods, leveraging the existence of caster wheels in the motion planning stage. As a proof of concept, this term is combined with a model-predictive trajectory tracking controller. Since this method requires knowledge of the caster wheel angle and rolling speed, an observer that estimates these states is also presented. The efficacy of the approach is shown in experiments on an intralogistics robot and compared against a decoupled bore-torque reduction approach and a caster-wheel agnostic controller. Moreover, the experiments show that the presented caster wheel estimator performs sufficiently well and therefore avoids the need for additional sensors.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) , 2021. p. 613-618
National Category
Control Engineering Robotics and automation Vehicle and Aerospace Engineering
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-310879DOI: 10.1109/ICAR53236.2021.9659478ISI: 000766318900093Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85124702874OAI: oai:DiVA.org:kth-310879DiVA, id: diva2:1651711
Conference
20th International Conference on Advanced Robotics (ICAR), DEC 07-10, 2021, ELECTR NETWORK
Note
Part of proceedings: ISBN 978-1-6654-3684-7, QC 20220413
2022-04-132022-04-132025-02-14Bibliographically approved