Directional Control of Sphere-Shaped Mobile Robot Using an Omni-Directional Three-Wheel Internal Drive Unit

Abstract

Authors have been developing a type of sphere-shaped mobile robots using an omnidirectional three-wheel internal driving unit. Previously, velocity control of the sphere shell has been realized. Basing on the previous scheme, direction control of the sphere shell is considered in this presentation. In order to estimate the direction of the internal driving unit and to compensate for the drift of the direction, an IMU sensor and an open-source pose estimation library are employed. The varidity of the scheme is confirmed by experiment.