Kinematics of Robot with Castered-and-Cambered Wheels with Respect to Drive Configuration Topology

A universal 3-D kinematic model is first proposed towards a four-wheeled robot with casters and cambers. The effects of caster and camber are next analyzed. Based on closed-chain space and Instantaneous Superposition Frame (ISR), a 3-D kinematical model of the articulated mobile robots with caster-cambered wheels and individual steering mechanism is built. The backward kinematics and estimation of unmeasurable variables are presented. Finally, a general solution to the backward kinematics for the drive configuration topology is discussed analytically.