Design and modeling of zero-energy wheeled mobile robot (WMR) / Mohd Noor Hafiz Huslan

The aim of this project is to design, model, and analyze a zero-energy wheeled mobile robot (WMR). This project begins with designing a small mobile robot that uses four wheels to move on an uneven terrain. This project consists of two sections; fabrication and the development of an autonomous control. This project focuses on fabrication aspect of WMR. The WMR uses wheels as a means of its locomotion. The design philosophy for WMR movement will be based on the angular velocity difference between right and left wheels. To achieve such control, four motors that drives each wheel is interfaced with PIC circuit that received signal from a sensor. This project also deals with kinematic and dynamic analysis of a WMR consists of four wheels and used skid-steering locomotion system to move. To control a WMR is a challenging task because the wheels must skid laterally to follow a curved path. For the kinematic analysis, a mathematical model is derived to get the relationship between all the four wheels. Omega theorem is used in the analysis. This theorem is used to determine and analyze the velocity for each wheel when it rotates with an absolute angular velocity but with constant magnitude. As a result, wheel on both side (left and right) must rotate at the same velocity to make sure this WMR follow the exact path and move on smooth condition when avoid obstacle, and also to avoid high friction between the wheels and ground that will make this WMR use more energy to move. For dynamic analysis, Transfer theorem equation has been used to get kinetic energy and angular momentum for this WMR.