Design and Fabrication of Swerve Drive Mechanism for Mobile robot Platform

The competitiveness of the Indonesian ABU Robot Contest (KRAI) has been increasing within the last decade. Due to the theme that changed every year, it is necessary to have a robot platform that can be used quickly and precisely. One other platform is the mobile robot platform as it used in each year rule. The swerve drive mechanism became the current trend in the robot contest as it gives a switft manuverability and high tyre traction to the game field. While it has more exellent performance compared to other holonomic mobile platforms, its complexity is the highest. Each swerve drive need to have two mechanisms consisting of steering system and drive system that need to be combined in a compact design. In addition to the electronic system, the speed and the steering need a separate controller. In this paper, we proposed to use a PID method for controlling the steering system. Both steering and drive system are actuated using BLDC motor to get high power to size ratio in the overall swerve drive mechanism. For the wheel drive system, a small hub motor is chosen as it has small form factor but can deliver speed and torque for the designed application. As for the steering system, the motor needs an additional gear reduction is needed to get enough steering torque. The material and structure of the swerve drive platform need to be carefully examined as the platform is designed to withstand up to 30 kg of load.