Path design and trace control of a wheeled mobile robot to damp liquid sloshing in a cylindrical container

Abstract

A spherical pendulum-type model is constructed to represent liquid sloshing in a cylindrical container, caused by the motions of a wheeled mobile robot. The model is used to design a path and an acceleration pattern for the robot in consideration of the damping of sloshing in the container. The curvature radius of the path and the acceleration pattern of the robot are determined using an input shaping method. A PD controller is used so that the robot can trace the designed path. The effectiveness of the present method is clarified through experimental results.