Sensorless terrain estimation for a wheeled mobile robot

Estimating the terrain for a wheeled mobile robot is challenging task when slip information is absent. Most of wheeled mobile robots are using different kinds of sensors to estimate the slip ratio and other surface condition measurements. This paper introduces a simple, yet novel method to estimate the terrain, using rolling resistance torque without using any additional sensors. Reaction torque observer is used to obtain the rolling resistance torque in different terrains. Proposed concept is practically verified by using a differential drive mobile robot.