A new family of omnidirectional and holonomic wheeled platforms for mobile robots

This paper presents the concepts for a new family of holonomic wheeled platforms that feature full omnidirectionality with simultaneous and independently controlled rotational and translational motion capabilities. We first present the “orthogonal-wheels” concept and the two major wheel assemblies on which these platforms are based. We then describe how a combination of these assemblies with appropriate control can be used to generate an omnidirectional capability for mobile robot platforms. Several alternative designs are considered, and their respective characteristics with respect to rotational and translational motion control are discussed. The design and control of a prototype platform developed to test and demonstrate the proposed concepts is then described, and experimental results illustrating the full omnidirectionality of the platform with decoupled rotational and translational degrees of freedom are presented.