SYSTEM DYNAMICS & CONTROL

CHAPTER 1

REVIEW
MOBILE ROBOT KINEMATICS
& LOCOMOTION
Dr. Vo Tuong Quan
HCMUT - 2011

Class Rules
1. Class attendance: 10% (if a student absent more than 2
time, the attendance score is zero).
2. Homeworks & Class exercises report: 30% (students will
submit the homework via ELearning system).
3. Teamwork project : 20%
Each team includes 3-4 students, each team will present
their research topic at the 3 final weeks of the semester.
English power point and english presentation in class are
encouraged.
4. Final exam: 40% (Students will allow to use their documents
while doing the exam. Time for final exam: 90 minutes

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Kinematics problems
Kinematic model for a mobile robot Consider the robot as a
rigid body on wheels, operating on a horizontal plane
How many dimenssion of this kinematic model of mobile robot?
The total dimensionality of this kinematic model on the plane is
three:
- Two for position in the plane
- One for orientation along the vertical axis, which is
orthogonal to the plane
To specify the position of the robot on the plane we
establish a relationship between the global reference frame
(global coordinate) of the plane and the local reference frame
(local coordinate) of the robot

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YI
The axes XI and YI
define an arbitrary initial
basis on the plane as
the global reference
frame from some origin
O: {XI,YI}

YR
XR

XI
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YI
Define position of the
robot choose a point
P on the robot chassis
as its position reference
point
The basis {XR, YR}
defines
two
axes
relative to P on the
robots chassis.

YR
XR

XI
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YI

YR
XR

The position of P in the

global reference frame is
specified by coordinates x
and y, and the angular
difference between the
global and local reference
frame is given by

The pose of the robot is a

vector with three elements:
I = [ x y ]

XI
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YI

The
orthogonal
matrix:

YR
XR

cos
R sin
0

sin
cos
0

rotation
0
0
1

This matrix can be used to

map motion in the global
reference frame {XI, YI} to
motion in terms of the local
reference frame {XR, YR}

XI
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This operation is denoted by
R( )I because the computation
of this operation depends on the
value of :
R = R(/2) I
cos
R sin
0

sin
cos
0

0
0
1

0 1 0

R 1 0 0
2
0 0 1
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Given some velocity (x, y, ) in the global reference frame
We can compute the components of motion along this
robots local axes XR and YR
In this case, due to the specific angle of the robot, the motion
along XR is equal to y and motion along YR is -x
0 1 0 x y

R R I 1 0 0 y x
2
0 0 1

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Robot within an arbitrary initial frame
Initial frame: {XI, YI}
x
Robot frame: {XR, YR}
Robot position:
y

YI

YR

XR

Mapping between the two frames:

x
R R I R y

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XI

cos
R sin
0

sin
cos
0

0
0
1

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Mobile Robot Kinematics

Example: Establish the robot speed x y as a function

of the wheel speeds i, steering angles i and steering speeds
i and the geometric parameters of the robot (configuration
coordinates)
yI
Forward kinematics
v(t)
s(t)

x
y f ( 1 , n , 1 , m , 1 , m )

Inverse kinematics

1 m

xI

f ( x, y ,)
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Mobile Robot Kinematics

The forward kinematic model of a differential drive robot is
relatively straight-forward. The differential drive robot has two
wheels each of diameter r.
Given a point P centred between the two drive wheels, each
wheel is a distance l from P
Given r, l, and the spinning speed of each wheel, 1 and 2
a forward kinematic model would predict the robots overall
speed in the global reference frame as:

x
I y f l , r , , 1 , 2

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Compute a robots motion in the global reference frame from
the motion in its local reference frame
I = R()-1R
The strategy is to first compute the contribution of each of
the two wheels in the local reference frame and then convert
these to the global reference frame
The contribution of each wheels spinning speed to the
translation speed at P in the direction of +XR is given as:

r1
x r1
2

r 2
xr 2
2

The total translation speed at P is given as:

x R x r1 x r 2

The speed y R is even easier at it must always be zero

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The contribution of each wheels spinning speed to the rotation
speed at P is given as:
r
r

2l

The total rotation speed at P is given as:

2l
R 1 2

Kinematic model for a differential drive robot as:

r1 r 2
2 2
cos sin 0
1
1

I R
0
R sin cos 0
r r
2
0
0
1
1

2l
2l
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Suppose the robot is positioned such that = /2, r = 1, and
l = 1 and the robot engages its wheels unevenly with 1 = 4
and 2 = 2
The velocity in the global reference frame as:

x 0 1 0 3 0

I y 1 0 0 0 3
0 0 1 1 1

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Do we need to consider about the dynamics of mobile robot?

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Wheels based mobile robot:
- Wheels are the most appropriate solution for most robotic
applications
- There are lots of options for combinations of different kinds
of wheels in different orientations
- Selection of wheels depends on the application
Three key considerations when designing wheel robots:
- Stability
- Maneuverability
- Controllability

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Wheels types
a) Standard wheel: Two degrees
of freedom; rotation around the
(motorized) wheel axle and the
contact point
b) Castor wheel: Three degrees
of freedom; rotation around the
wheel axle, the contact point and
the castor axle

a)

b)

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c) Swedish wheel: Three
degrees of freedom;
rotation
around
the
(motorized) wheel axle,
around the rollers and
around the contact point
d) Ball or spherical
wheel:
Suspension
technically not solved

c)

d)

swedish 90

s wedis h 45

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Wheels arrangements
Legend

Steered
standard
wheel

Connected
wheels

Motorised
Swedish
wheel

Motorised
standard
wheel

Un-powered
standard
wheel

Un-powered
omnidirectional
wheel

Two wheels

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Three wheels

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Four wheels

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Six wheels

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