Automatic running planning for omni-directional robot using genetic programming

This paper presents a omni-directional mobile robot which can run on off-road and run over an obstacle. The robot is equipped with crawler-roller running system. In order to automatically control the robot to run in optional direction and an orbit, we discuss the motion analysis and derive the equations for calculating the inputting volt of motors according to given direction or orbit. Even though we can do this by analysis theory, it is difficult to control the robot in real time. Therefore, we propose an intelligent control method using genetic programming (GP) to search an optimum route leading the robot to given destination and avoiding obstacles. We have carried out many. practical running tests and simulations to verify the efficiency of the mechanism and the intelligent control method. In this paper we show examples of the tests.