A Study on a Holonomic Omnidirectional Vehicle using 4 Ball Wheels

The paper presents a design and characteristics of a new holonomic omnidirectional moving vehicle, which simultaneous and independently controlled translational and rotational motions. The moving vehicle has four rubber balls instead of wheels. Each ball is driven by two rotating rollers. But the system has only four actuators. The kinematics of the moving vehicle is analyzed and the control algorithms are derived for the holonomic and omnidirectional moving vehicle. The experimental results show that the proposed new type of moving mechanism has good characteristics and the sensor on board is useful for autonomous moving under relatively large disturbance.