An Omnidirectional Cooperative Transportation of a Large Object by Differential Drive Wheeled Mobile Robots with the Active-caster Control

In this paper, we present a coordinated omnidirectional transporting system of a large object by multiple mobile robots. Conventional differential drive wheeled mobile robots are used for the system, but the connection point with the transported object is installed at a position separated from the midpoint of the two drive wheels in the traveling direction. The mobile robot is driven to control the movement of that point. The control method for the differential drive wheeled mobile robot is a kind of active caster control. From this, it is possible to perform independent running of the mobile robot, docking with the transport object, and omnidirectional motion control of the transport object by multiple mobile robots. In this paper, to verify the effectiveness of the proposed system, we present some simulation studies together with the system design and mechanical design of a prototype of mobile robot prototype.