Abstract
In the last decades, mobile robotics has become a very interesting research topic in the field of robotics, mainly because of population ageing and the recent pandemic emergency caused by Covid-19. Against this context, the paper presents an overview on wheeled mobile robot (WMR), which have a central role in nowadays scenario. In particular, the paper describes the most commonly adopted locomotion strategies, perception systems, control architectures and navigation approaches. After having analyzed the state of the art, this paper focuses on the kinematics of three omnidirectional platforms: a four mecanum wheels robot (4WD), a three omni wheel platform (3WD) and a two swerve-drive system (2SWD). Through a dimensionless approach, these three platforms are compared to understand how their mobility is affected by the wheel speed limitations that are present in every practical application. This original comparison has not been already presented by the literature and it can be used to improve our understanding of the kinematics of these mobile robots and to guide the selection of the most appropriate locomotion system according to the specific application.
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16 January 2023
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Luigi Tagliavini and Giuseppe Quaglia. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Luigi Tagliavini and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Luigi Tagliavini, Giovanni Colucci, Andrea Botta, Paride Cavallone, Lorenzo Baglieri and Giuseppe Quaglia contributed equally to this work.
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Tagliavini, L., Colucci, G., Botta, A. et al. Wheeled Mobile Robots: State of the Art Overview and Kinematic Comparison Among Three Omnidirectional Locomotion Strategies. J Intell Robot Syst 106, 57 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10846-022-01745-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10846-022-01745-7