Position and Orientation Control of Three Wheels Swerve Drive Mobile Robot Platform

Drive technology for mobile robots is currently developing very quickly, especially for the type of wheeled driven platform. The driving models such as Ackermann steering, DDMR, and Omni-wheel robots have been widely implemented as mobile robot platforms. However, to answer the challenges in the robot contest where the competition is getting tougher, research is needed on a mobile platform that is more efficient, faster, and more precise. In this research, the design and fabrication of a mobile robot platform with a swerve drive model will be carried out. Swerve drive has independent driving and steering at each wheel. This model can provide a higher speed and freedom of maneuver for the robot compared to the DDMR, Ackermann steering, and Omni wheel drive models. However, swerve drive requires a higher number of motors as well as a more complex control algorithm in regulating the speed of the wheel drive motor and the steering angle on each independent wheel to be further controlled simultaneously in moving the robot to the target position and orientation. In terms of the control system, a multi-level control will be made where the low-level control will regulate the speed of the wheel drive and its relative direction to the robot’s body. Meanwhile, high-level control will be used to coordinate the movement of each wheel so that the results can make the robot to move according to the given trajectory.