A Practical Approach to Control and Self-Localization of an Omni- Directional Mobile Robot

Due to their advantages, omni-directional mobile robots have found many applications especially in robotic soccer competitions. Despite recent advances, effective control and self-localization of omni-directional mobile robots remain as important and challenging issues. In this work, a practical approach for control and self-localization of an omni-directional robot is proposed. For this purpose, a simplified model of the system is derived for fast tuning of the control system parameters. In particular, strategies for fast tuning of PID/PD coefficients for position and orientation control are devised. A vision-based self-localization and the conventional odometry systems are fused for robust self-localization. The methods have been tested in the RoboCup competition field using three Persia middle size omni-directional robots. The experimental results are shown to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed system and its comparison with a few other compatible approaches. Key-Words: Omni-directional, Mobile robot, Control, Self-localization.