MOBIUS, AN OMNIDIRECTIONAL ROBOT UTILIZING MECANUM WHEELS AND FUZZY LOGIC CONTROL

摘要

In this paper, we present the results of an unmanned ground vehicle robot development effort completed at NASA LaRC's Robotics and Intelligent Machines Lab. The low-cost robot, named Mobius, was developed as part of an investigation into novel omnidirectional locomotion technologies. The vehicle is equipped with lightweight Mecanum (a.k.a. Swedish) wheels. Operator input is provided using a commercial joystick and wireless link. Directional commands are converted to a 45-degree rotated coordinate system, leading to a simple and intuitive mathematical solution for teleoperable Mecanum-wheel-based platforms. A high-level processor running Linux serves to input user commands, output sensor data, and perform translation on incoming direction values. Sensors include dual pan-and-tilt color cameras providing real-time mono and stereoscopic video feedback. At the microcontroller level, a simple fuzzy logic algorithm has been implemented for wheel speed control. The robot platform is capable of performing complete 360-degree translation, bidirectional rotation, and simultaneous translation with rotation.