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Design and Implementation of a Novel Spherical Mobile Robot

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Abstract

In this paper, the design, modeling and implementation of a novel spherical mobile robot is presented. The robot composes of a spherical outer shell made of a transparent thermoplastic material, two pendulums, two DC motors with gearboxes, two equipments for linear motion and two control units. It possesses four distinct motional modes including: driving, steering, jumping and zero-radius turning. In driving and steering modes, the robot moves along straight and circular trajectories, respectively. The robot performs these motional modes using movable internal masses. In the jumping mode, it can jump over obstacles and in the zero-radius turning mode, the robot can turn with zero-radius to improve the motion flexibility. Furthermore, the attempts to establish the dynamic models of some motional modes are made and finally, the accuracy of the obtained dynamic models is verified by simulation and experimental results.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Mechatronics Research Laboratory, School of Engineering– Emerging Technologies, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran

    Saber Mahboubi & Ahmad Ghanbari

  2. Karaj Branch, Islamic Azad University, Karaj, Iran

    Mir Masoud Seyyed Fakhrabadi

Authors
  1. Saber Mahboubi
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  2. Mir Masoud Seyyed Fakhrabadi
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  3. Ahmad Ghanbari
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Correspondence to Mir Masoud Seyyed Fakhrabadi.

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Mahboubi, S., Seyyed Fakhrabadi, M.M. & Ghanbari, A. Design and Implementation of a Novel Spherical Mobile Robot. J Intell Robot Syst 71, 43–64 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10846-012-9748-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10846-012-9748-8

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