The mobile robot "staff": mechanical analysis and design

The development of a fully mobile omnidirectional vehicle intended for flexible manufacturing plants (mechanical, pipeless chemical plants and others) and loads up to 1200 kg is presented. Four identical steering/tractive units with conventional wheels are used. An accurate dynamical formulation has been developed in order to improve the dead reckoning accuracy. It takes into account the dependence of the rolling and pivoting resistance torques upon the normal reactive forces, and includes a formulation of the motion perturbations due to wheel deformation. A finite element model of the structure has been used for static analysis, dynamic loading and vibration analysis.