Near-Optimal Trajectory Planning of a Spherical Mobile Robot for Environment Exploration

Spherical mobile robot has the characteristics of compact structure and agile motion and is promising to be used in unmanned environment. Designed for environment exploration, a spherical mobile robot BHQ-2 was briefly introduced. The kinematic equation of BHQ-2 was established and its controllability was proved with controllable Lie algebra. Based on the Ritz approximation theory, the near-optimal trajectory of BHQ-2 was planned with the Gauss-Newton algorithm. Simulation results and experimental results of the spherical mobile robot to plan trajectory with the method were presented.