Three designs of mobile robot traveling simulator using optical mice

This paper presents three different designs of mobile robot traveling simulator, targeting at a mobile robot equipped with three optical mice at the bottom. In the mobile robot traveling simulator, a traveling surface sample is made to rotate relative to stationary optical mice, enabling precise and repetitive traveling experiments at a minimal cost in space and time. For a given velocity of a mobile robot, the rotating speed of a traveling surface sample, the installation angles of three optical mice can be changed, and the installation positions of zero to two optical mice can changed, leading to 1 to 3 DOF mobile robot traveling simulator. Taking into account the discrepancy between the desired and actual velocity measurements of three optical mice, a cost function is defined for the optimal traveling simulation of a mobile robot. By minimizing the cost function, the optimal values of four to six controllable parameters are determined in two steps: 1) the optimal rotating speed and zero to two optimal installation positions, and 2) three optimal installation angles. Simulation results are given to compare the parameter setting of three different designs of mobile robot traveling simulator.