Unified-type Design and Structural Analysis for Mecanum Wheel Performance Improvement

Abstract

In order to provide a mobile robot with omnidirectionality, various types of omnidirectional wheels have been developed. This paper deals with an improved design and structural analysis of a Mecanum wheel, which is the type of omnidirectional wheels most commonly used in industrial fields. A geometric formulation for manufacturingthe Mecanum wheel is presented and two types of Mecanum wheels are designed and fabricated in this research. While conventional assembled-type Mecanum wheels have a complicated structure and the high possibility of mutual interference between sub-components, a unified type of Mecanum wheel reduces the number of sub-components and increases the degree of structural rigidity. The stress and strain properties of the two designs are compared to confirm the quantitative improvement of the new design by a commercial structural analysis tool. The analysis results show that the unified type of Mecanum wheel has properties superior to the assembled type of Mecanum wheel in terms of its ability to reduce interference.