The Spherical Robot Transfer Problem with Minimal Total Kinetic Energy*

Abstract

Previous spherical mobile robots were driven by two rollers with a fixed rotational axis, which restricts the angular velocity vector of the sphere to two dimensions. Three-dimensional freedom is expected to improve the rotational diversity of the sphere. This study proposes a spherical mobile robot with a variable roller-rotational axis that allows three-dimensional freedom of movement. Furthermore, the kinetic energy of transporting the sphere by the rollers is minimized by an optimization procedure.