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A Differentially-Geared, Omnidirectional Robotics Platform With Autonomous Jerk-Limited Navigation

CSEF · 2023 Applied Mechanics & Structures Second Award

Brown Logan, Usher Nicholas · 10

Overview

Problem: Wheeled robotics research and commercial application development is inhibited by the lack of a fast, powerful, and easy-to-use robotics platform that can operate omnidirectionally in constrained spaces. Solution: A differentially-geared robotics platform that combines the strengths of three traditional wheeled chassis (tank, mecanum/omni, and swerve) while eliminating their weaknesses. This platform includes custom software with autonomous 3rd derivative, jerk-limited navigation. It is built using off-the-shelf and easy-to-manufacture parts, increasing usefulness and attainability. Process: Our CAD-centric, iterative mechanical engineering design process and hardware/software integration testing initially uncovered challenges preventing us from meeting our performance criteria. In addressing these problems, our solutions included: Implementing an NVIDIA Jetson and Arduino based control system Creating an asynchronous, binary, CRC error-checked communication system to enable loop speeds of less than 4ms Redesigning the gear train to increase the robot velocity to meet the requirements (> 1 m/s) Creating a fast and accurate navigation system that uses jerk-limiting to address the non-instantaneous nature of swerve drives Conclusion: Our differential swerve drive platform is omnidirectional, has more power on average than mecanum/omni drives, and is 50% lighter than traditional swerves with the same power delivery. Its easy-to-use, versatile software enables both human and autonomous control. It allows the robot to smoothly navigate along paths to a goal position within an accuracy of 1 cm while traveling at its top speed of 1.4 m/s.

Source coverage

This record comes from a published award list, not a complete project archive. Its abstract comes from CSEF's public project showcase as archived by the Internet Archive before judging (https://web.archive.org/web/20230401224130/https://ca-csef.zfairs.com/showcase/ShowcaseInfo?f=838e60b7-ea75-46e8-865c-fde4864244b3); the version presented may differ.

Awards (1)

Competition history

  • CSEF 2023 Applied Mechanics & Structures · Entry S0306

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