Software based modeling, simulation and fuzzy control of a Mecanum wheeled mobile robot

Mecanum wheeled omnidirectional mobile robots (MWORs) due to their special wheel structure, allow more maneuverability and agility in mobile manipulation. Because of their complex dynamics and kinematics it's difficult to provide a satisfactory model for them, analytically. Thus, instead of deriving mathematical equations, software based modeling and simulation of a three DOF Mecanum wheeled omnidirectional mobile robot are presented. In this way, a software package consists of Solidworks, MD.Adams, MATLAB and specially its module, SIMULINK, are used to provide a virtual numeric prototype which has minimal simplifying assumptions. The system is simulated using Co-Simulation technology between Adams and MATLAB, provided by Adams/Controls module in discrete mode. After defining fundamental movement modes for this class of robots, a novel control system is designed using three separate fuzzy controllers based on mental knowledge of the system in order to control position and orientation of the robot, simultaneously. Simulation results show good performance of the proposed controller without any need to tuning and optimization. Moreover the robot can turn around its center simultaneously when it is tracking a desired path.