Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Fabrication of omni-directional driving system using unconstrained steel ball

  • Published:
Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

An omni-directional driving system with one spherical wheel is proposed in this paper. This system can overcome the limitations of existing driving systems, such as structural limitations that reduce vertical, horizontal, and diagonal movements. The proposed driving system is composed of two stepper motors, a steel ball covered by steel ball bearing, a counterweight to eliminate eccentricity, and ball plungers for balance. All parts of this structure are located at the same distance from the center of the system to place the center of gravity at the system center. The ball bearing was designed for even rotation and smooth directional changes of the spherical wheel using a model similar to that in a computer mouse ball. Steel was selected for the ball bearing material to prevent slipping on the ground. Moreover, the steel ball is stable because of the support from the ball bearing. One of the stepping motors is used for driving the spherical wheel. The other stepping motor enables movement in the desired direction by rotating on the central axis. The ATmega128 microcontroller is used for controlling the two stepping motors. Driving experiments were executed in a variety of environments, confirming the performance and validity of the omni-directional driving system.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. C. W. Wu, K. S. Huang and C. K. Hwang. A novel spherical wheel driven by chains with guiding wheels, International Conference on Machine Learning and Cybernetics, 6 (2005) 3242–3245.

    Google Scholar 

  2. Endo. T, Nakamura and Y, An omnidirectional vehicle on a basketball, Advanced Robotics ICAR 05. Proceedings 12th International Conference (2005) 573–578.

    Google Scholar 

  3. Y. F. Pen, C. H. Chiu, W. R. Tsai and M. H. Chou, Design of an omni-directional spherical robot: Using fuzzy control, Engineers and computer scientists IMECS 2009 (2009) 168–173.

    Google Scholar 

  4. H. J. Kim and B. K. Kim, Minimum-energy trajectory planning and control on a straight line with rotation for threewheeled omni-directional mobile robots, Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2012 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on 2012 (2012) 3119–3124.

    Google Scholar 

  5. Q. Zhan, Y. Cai and C, Yan, Design, analysis and experiments of an omni-directional spherical robot, Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2011 IEEE International Conference on 2011 (2011) 4921–4926.

    Google Scholar 

  6. C. Treesatayapun, A discrete-time stable controller for an omni-directional mobile robot based on an approximated model, Control engineering pratice, 19 (2) (2011) 194–203.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. B. A. M. Afif and M. F. Zakaria, 3WD omni-wheeled mobile robot using ARM processor for line following application, Industrial Electronics and Applications (ISIEA), 2011 IEEE Symposium on 2011 (2011) 410–414.

    Google Scholar 

  8. H. M. Feng, C. Y. Chen and J. H. Horng, Intelligent omnidirectional vision-based mobile robot fuzzy systems design and implementation, Expert systems with applications, 37 (5) (2010) 4009–4019.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Z. Yunan, S. Wang and J Zhang, Research on motion characteristic of omnidirectional robot based on mecanum wheel, Digital Manufacturing and Automation (ICDMA), 2010 International Conference, 2 (2010) 237–241.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. K. Tadakuma and R. Tadakuma, Mechanical design of “omni-ball”: spherical wheel for holonomic omnidirectional motion, IEEE International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering, CASE 2007 (2007) 788–794.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  11. H. M. John D, L. Robert G and W. Abraham, Atlas motion platform generalized kinematic model — Atlas motion platform, Meccanica, 46 (1) (2011) 17–25.

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  12. H. Ghariblu, Design and modeling of a ball wheel omnidirectional Mobile Robot, Computer Engineering and Applications, 2 (2010) 571–575.

    Google Scholar 

  13. G. Mourioux, C. Novales, G. Poisson and P. Vieyres, Omni-directional robot with spherical orthogonal wheels: concepts and analyses, Robotics and Automation, 2006, ICRA 2006, Proceedings 2006 IEEE International Conference on 2006 (2006) 3374–3379.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  14. C. Ye and S. Ma, Development of an omnidirectional mobile platform, Mechatronics and Automation, 2009, ICMA 2009, International Conference on 2009, 1111–1115.

  15. Wikipidea. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stepper_motor.

  16. Wikipidea. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_resistance.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Changwon National University, Changwon, Korea

    Hyunseok Lee, Yeongmin Na & Jongkyu Park

  2. Department of Electrical Engineering, Changwon National University, Changwon, Korea

    Taegone Park

  3. Korea Institute of Industrial Technology (KITECH), 2F, Construction Equipment Technology Center, John Choi Hall, Catholic University of Daegu, 13-13 Hayang-ro, Gyeongsan-si, gyeongsangbuk-do, 712-702, Korea

    Youngtaek Cha

Authors
  1. Hyunseok Lee
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Yeongmin Na
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Taegone Park
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Youngtaek Cha
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Jongkyu Park
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jongkyu Park.

Additional information

This paper was presented at the FEOFS 2013, Jeju, Korea, June 9–13, 2013. Recommended by Guest Editor Jung-Il Song

Hyun-seok Lee received his B.S. degree from the Department of Mechanical Engineering in Changwon National University in 2012. His research interests include 3D printers and biomimetic robot design.

Jong-kyu Park received his B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the Department of Mechanical Engineering in POSTECH in 2000, 2002, and 2007, respectively. He has been a professor in School of Mechanical Engineering in Changwon National University since 2008. His research interests include piezoelectric sensors and actuators as well as biomimetic mechatronics design.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Lee, H., Na, Y., Park, T. et al. Fabrication of omni-directional driving system using unconstrained steel ball. J Mech Sci Technol 29, 93–97 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-014-1214-z

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-014-1214-z

Keywords

Search

Navigation