Dynamic modeling with nonsqueezing load distribution for omnidirectional mobile robots with powered caster wheels

This paper presents a novel dynamic modelling approach for omnidirectional mobile robots with Powered Caster Wheels (PCWs). With the conventional dynamic model, the internal forces induced by the redundant PCWs cannot be computed and controlled, which will significantly reduce the driving efficiency and result in unstable robot motions. To eliminate the internal forces, a general nonsqueezing load distribution model is proposed and integrated with the dynamic model of the mobile robot. By this new dynamic model, the driving force applied by each PCW is distributed as evenly as possible without inducing any internal forces. To illustrate the proposed dynamic modeling method, a computation example is provided.