Motion Study of an Omni-Directional Rover for Step Climbing

In this paper, a study of a wheeled mobile robot (WMR) with omni-directional mobility and rover-like climbing ability is presented. Various rovers with robust locomotion design had been developed. However, the rover locomotion design with omni-directional mobility has not been addressed commonly. Shrimp suspension system and parallel bogies were employed as robot locomotion. It adapts to the terrain profile passively and it has better climbing capability than other rovers. To achieve a singularityless motion, the kinematic model of a wheeled mobile robot (WMR), including a platform equipped with six omni-directional wheels (ODWs), is formulated. The contents of this study are the design principle, kinematics, and motion studies. Also, experimental results have been employed to verify the model developed.