Department of Mechanical Engineering

King’s College London

MSc Project Report (7CEMM721)

Mobile Autonomous Omni-Directional

Robotic Vehicle Control for Indoor
Navigation
by

Michael. M. Wijetunge de Silva

Supervised by Professor Jian S. Dai

16th September 2008

DECLARATION

This report is submitted to the Department of Mechanical Engineering (King’s College London) as part
of course 7CEMM721 and is solely the original work of its author, except where clearly specified
otherwise. It has not been previously submitted to this or another university.

Student: Michael M. W. de Silva Signature: Date: 16/09/2008

Supervisor: Professor Jian S. Dai Signature: Date:

2nd Marker: Dr. Catarina Nunes Signature: Date:

Abstract

This research describes the design and development of a fully scalable electronic architecture,
implementing a control system for an Omni-directional drive system to autonomously
regulate its position, heading, and velocity based on feedback from on-board sensors whilst
operating in conjunction with a navigation system, incorporating a novel application of
CAD/CAM tools so as to allow the robot to exhibit autonomous behaviour to a degree of
sophistication.

i
Acknowledgements
“Not everything that counts can be counted, and not
everything that can be counted counts.”

— Sign hanging in Einstein’s office at Princeton

My parents continued love and support have truly given my life meaning and I am ever
grateful to them. Since the passing of my Father, my Mom has been a pillar of incredible
strength whilst making great sacrifices to ensure my future with a sound education.

I thank my thesis supervisor, Professor Jian S. Dai, for taking the time to read this report
and for the many suggestions, comments, and invaluable advice provided. I would also like
to express thanks to the second thesis marker, Dr. Catarina Nunes, for taking the time to
read my report as well.

I am grateful to Dr. Kaspar Althoefer for taking the time to discuss aspects of this project
as well as his monumental support during a difficult period. I am also grateful to my
personal tutor, Dr. Samjid Mannan, for his invaluable support.

Many thanks to HI-TECH Software1 for their generous support of this research.

I am especially grateful to my Aunt Anita and Uncle Hema for their kind generosity, love,
and support as well as my cousin Hemanthi for reviewing this report. Last but not least, I
would like to thank my cousins Cheryl and Cheanthe for being there in my hour of need as
well as my Aunt Ianthe and Uncle Felix for their love and support.

This report has been entirely composed in LATEX on an Apple Mac, running OS X v10.4.11.
1
http://www.htsoft.com

ii
I dedicate this work to my Mother Melody, my late Father and best friend Nilhan de Silva
(1939 - 2002), and my illustrious grandfather Dr. Harold P. A. Wijetunge - Chief Medical
Officer for 35 years to the University of Peradeniya, Ceylon.

iii
Contents

1 Introduction 1

2 Literature Survey 3

2.1 Omni-directional Drive Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

2.1.1 Orthogonal Wheels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

2.1.2 Universal Wheels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

2.1.3 Omni-directional Robot Configurations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

2.2 Trajectory Generation and Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

2.3 Local Robot Navigation and Localisation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

3 Theoretical Development 10

3.1 Kinematic Modelling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

3.2 Path Planning and Planar Trajectory Generation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

3.2.1 Spline Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

3.2.2 Cubic Bézier-Bernstein Polynomials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

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 3.2.3 Higher Order Polynomials and Complex Paths . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

3.3 Trajectory Navigation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

3.4 Kinematic and Dynamic Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

3.4.1 Proportional-Integral Motor Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

3.5 Localisation and Odometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

4 Analysis and Design 31

4.1 Concept . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

4.2 Mechanical Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

4.2.1 Motors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

4.3 Preliminary Electronic Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

4.3.1 Sensors and Actuators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

4.3.2 Overview of the Proposed Electronic System . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

4.4 Energy Supply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

4.5 Detailed Electronic Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

4.5.1 Low-Level Controller Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

4.5.1.1 Programming of the Microcontroller Firmware . . . . . . . 44

4.5.2 The Motor Driver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

4.5.2.1 Motor Driver PCB Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

4.5.2.2 PWM Motor Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

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 4.5.2.3 Current Sensing and Thermal Output . . . . . . . . . . . 51

4.5.3 Motor Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

4.5.4 Sensor Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

4.6 MARV’s Computer and Operating System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

4.6.1 The On-board Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

4.6.2 The Operating System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

4.7 Software Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

4.7.1 Development Platform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

4.7.2 MCU Firmware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

4.7.3 The Control Application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

4.7.4 Asynchronous Serial Communications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

4.7.4.1 Cyclic Redundancy Check Routines for Verifying Data

Integrity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

5 Implementation 61

5.1 Equipment and Instrumentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

5.2 Initial Design Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

5.3 Final Design and Integration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

5.3.1 Electronic Module Implementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

5.3.1.1 Motor Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

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 5.3.1.2 Motor Driver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

5.3.2 MCU Firmware Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

5.3.2.1 Serial Communications with CRC Error Checking . . . . . 67

5.3.2.2 Power Control PWM Module Testing . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

5.3.3 Control Application Software Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

5.4 The Completed Robot Prototype . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

6 Results 73

6.1 Power Control PWM Module Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

6.2 LV-MaxSonar-EZ1 Range-finder Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

7 Discussion 76

7.1 Further Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

8 Conclusions 79

Appendices 88

A Literature Review: Case Studies 88

A.1 Omni-directional Drive Market Viability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

B Theoretical Development: Mathematical Derivations and Simulations 91

B.1 Continuous-Time Simulation of PI/PID Control of an Ideal DC Motor . . 91

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 B.2 Discrete PI Controller Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

B.3 Linear Splines by Lagrange Interpolation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

B.4 Recursive Definition for Computing Bernstein Polynomials . . . . . . . . . 100

C Analysis and Design: Technical Details 101

C.1 LV-MaxSonar-EZ1 Ultrasonic Range-Finders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

C.2 ADXL320 ±5g Dual Axis Accelerometers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

C.3 Motor Controller Flowchart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

C.4 Sensor Controller Flowchart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

C.5 Control Application Flowchart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

C.6 Asynchronous Serial Communications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

D MATLAB Simulations 108

D.1 Plotting Cubic Bézier Curves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

D.1.1 ‘bezier direct’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

D.1.2 ‘bezier direct circle’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

D.1.3 ‘bezier direct patch’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

E Developed Source Code 115

E.1 Direct CRC Routine Developed in Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

E.2 Motor Controller MCU Firmware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

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List of Figures

2.1 Assembled Omniwheel and a dimensional illustration of a single wheel [1]. . 5

3.1 Geometry of the Omni-directional robot [2]. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

3.2 The robot rotated by φ radians, with respect to the absolute reference frame. 13

3.3 A cubic Bézier curve, its control polygon, and control points. . . . . . . . . 18

3.4 Plot of the cubic Bernstein basis functions obtained in MATLAB. . . . . . 19

3.5 Plot of a few cubic Bézier curves in MATLAB, showing their control polygons. 22

3.6 Generating a circular path with a 5th order Berstein polynomial. . . . . . . 23

3.7 Generating a complex path by patching two cubic Bézier curves. . . . . . . 24

3.8 The robot’s pose following a cubic Bézier path (not to scale). . . . . . . . . 25

3.9 Kinematic and dynamic control. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

3.10 Block Diagram of a Closed-Loop System. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

4.1 Overview of the mechatronic system. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

4.2 Photograph of the supplied chassis and mounted hardware. . . . . . . . . . 32

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4.3 US Digital E4P-300-079 Optical Encoder. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

4.4 Overview of the proposed on-board electronics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

4.5 The PIC18F4331 device pin-out as per the datasheet [3]. . . . . . . . . . . 43

4.6 The In-Circuit Serial Programming interface [4]. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

4.7 Partial schematic of the prototyped Motor Driver PCB. . . . . . . . . . . . 46

4.8 Diagram of the Motor Driver PCB’s MCU Interface Pinout. . . . . . . . . 47

4.9 PCB Gerber output showing the silkscreen printing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

4.10 PCB Gerber output showing the component side and silkscreen. . . . . . . 48

4.11 PCB Gerber output showing the solder side and silkscreen. . . . . . . . . . 48

4.12 Locked anti-phase PWM control [5]. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

4.13 Sign/Magnitude PWM Control [5]. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

4.14 Simplified Diagram of the Current Sense Circuitry of the LMD18200 [5]. . 51

4.15 Schematic of the Motor Controller. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

4.16 Schematic of the Sensor Controller. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

4.17 Relationship between high and low level software. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

4.18 Efficiency of the Direct CRC-16-CCITT Checksum on a 25-byte Payload. . 60

5.1 Prototyped Motor Controller Integrated into the Project Box. . . . . . . . 63

5.2 The Motor Driver with FT232RL USB to Serial interfaces mounted to the left. 64

5.3 Initial Testing of the Motor Driver. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

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5.4 Current Sense Output of a LMD18200 IC During a Change in Direction. . 65

5.5 Serial output from the Motor Controller shown on screen. . . . . . . . . . . 67

5.6 Power Control PWM Module Duty Cycle Output. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

5.7 Wiring of the Motors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

5.8 In-line Fuse Holder Installed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

5.9 Project Box Cabling. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

5.10 Hirose HR10 Panellised Connector for ICSP of the MCU. . . . . . . . . . . 72

5.11 The Completed Robot. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

6.1 Plot of Calculated and Measured Duty Cycle Ratio vs. PDCXH Register
Value. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

6.2 Plot of the MaxSonar’s Analogue Output (mV) vs. the Object Distance (cm). 75

A.1 Hammonds G-30 Series ODV towing an aircraft [6]. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

A.2 The Rovio by WoWee [7]. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

B.1 Traditional PI Control Diagram [8]. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

B.2 Block diagram of a PI controller. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

B.3 Equivalent Circuit Diagram of an Ideal DC Motor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

B.4 SIMULINK Model of an Ideal DC Motor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

B.5 An Adaptable PI/PID Controller Designed in SIMULINK. . . . . . . . . . 94

B.6 Unit Step Response of an Ideal DC Motor Under PI Control. . . . . . . . . 96

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B.7 Unit Step Response of an Ideal DC Motor Under PID Control. . . . . . . . 96

B.8 Flowchart of an implemented discrete-time PI controller in software. . . . . 98

C.1 Functional Block Diagram of the ADXL320 ±5g Dual Axis Accelerometer [9].102

C.2 Flowchart of the Motor Controller Firmware. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

C.3 Flowchart of the Sensor Controller Firmware. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

C.4 Flowchart of the Control Application. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

C.5 Description of the Signals for Asynchronous Serial Communication. . . . . 106

xii
List of Tables

4.1 DC Motor Electrical and Performance Specifications [10]. . . . . . . . . . . 33

4.2 Sealed Lead-Acid Battery Specifications. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

4.3 Estimated Power Consumption by On-board Sub-Systems. . . . . . . . . . 39

4.4 MCU and FPGA Comparative Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

4.5 Review of minimum MCU peripherals required for each controller. . . . . . 42

4.6 Description of the pinout of the LMD18200 H-bridge Integrated Circuit. . . 45

5.1 Detailed description of instrumentation utilised in the development of the

robot. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

6.1 Duty cycle ratio values obtained from the Power Control PWM Module. . 73

B.1 Ideal DC Motor Parameters for Simulating the PI/PID SIMULINK Model. 95

xiii
Nomenclature

µ Micro [10−6 ]

Ω Electric Resistance [Ohm] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . V/A [m2 · kg · s−3 · A−2 ]

m2 Area [Square Metre]

m3 Volume [Cubic Metre]

A Electric Current [Ampere]

C Electric Charge [Coulomb] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . s·A

c Centi [10−2 ]

F Capacitance [Farad] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C/V [m−2 · kg−1 · s4 · A2 ]

G Giga [109 ]

H Inductance [Henry] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Wb/A [m2 · kg · s−2 · A−2 ]

Hz Frequency [Hertz] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . s−1

J Energy, Work, and Quantity of Heat [Joule] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . N·m [m2 · kg · s−2 ]

k Kilo [103 ]

kg Mass [Kilogram]

M Mega [106 ]

m Length [Metre] or Milli [10−3 ]

xiv
ms−1 Speed, Velocity [Metre per Second]

ms−2 Acceleration [Metre per Square Second]

N Force [Newton] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . m · kg · s−2

n Nano [10−9 ]

p Pico [10−12 ]

s Time [Second]

V Electric Potential [Volt] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . W/A [m2 · kg · s−3 · A−1 ]

W Power [Watt] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . J/s [m2 · kg · s−3 ]

Wb Magnetic Flux [Weber] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . V·s [m2 · kg · s−2 · A−1 ]

xv
Chapter 1

Introduction

Reliable and accurate robot self-localisation and control is one of the the most challenging
and important aspects of mobile robotics. Operations involving robotic motion, such as
path planning, path following and obstacle collision avoidance, rely on the knowledge and
accuracy of the robots location in the environment.

Performing the above tasks at any specified location within the environment, requires for
the robot to be able to navigate and localise itself within a certain degree of accuracy.

The aims and objectives of the project involved the development of a control system for
an Omni-directional drive system to autonomously regulate its position, heading, and
velocity based on feedback from on-board sensors as well as operate in conjunction with a
navigation system so as to allow the robot to exhibit sophisticated autonomous behaviour.

The challenge presented by the robot localisation problem laid in determining and tracking
the location of the robot and its heading with respect to a form of local and global
reference frame. It has been said that, “using sensory information to locate the robot
in its environment is the most fundamental problem to providing a mobile robot with
autonomous capabilities” [11].

1
The majority of the work presented in this thesis has been concentrated on two distinct
goals: (i) developing a sound mathematical model for modelling the robotic kinematics
and controlling its path following ability and (ii) designing, developing and building a fully
scalable architecture for a mobile robotic vehicle, with a large focus on the electronics
involved in the implementation.

This research is based on the knowledge obtained from many areas in Electronic and
Mechanical Engineering such as Robotics Systems, Computer Aided Design, Dynamic
Systems and Simulations, Embedded Systems Design, Silicon Technology, and Control
Systems Design.

The official project title was re-arranged as ‘Omni-Directional Mobile Autonomous Robotic
Vehicle’ or simply MARV, so as to provide a suitable nickname for ease of reference to the
robot and project alike.

The presented work is divided into six chapters. Chapter 2 presents the background and
literature survey to the project. Chapter 3 describes the theoretical development that was
accomplished. In Chapter 4, the design and development conducted have been presented.
The current work and progress of the project is detailed in Chapter 5 with results obtained
from various tests presented in Chapter 6, whilst Chapter 7 describes further research and
development that needs to be conducted.

2
Chapter 2

Literature Survey

The literature presented in this chapter is a critical review of previous work achieved in
this and related areas pertaining to Omni-directional control and navigation of wheeled
mobile robotic vehicles, whilst providing further insight into Omni-directional motion and
its viability for implementation in commercial, industrial, and military applications.

The most common means of transportation for mobile robotic vehicles are those imple-
menting a wheeled drive, since most wheeled systems provide relatively accurate odometry
whilst travelling over smooth surfaces as found in many in-door environments.

Akermann steering [12] is favoured in the automobile industry, where it utilises a steering
mechanism in the form of a rack and pinion by which the front, and in some cases the
rear, pair of wheels may be steered to determine different turning radii. However, vehicles
employing Omni-directional drive and synchronous-drive [13] have the kinematic advantage
of simultaneous translation and rotation in any direction.

The advantage of such means of locomotion are made quite apparent in confined spaces such
as factory floors, material transfer to workstations, and other spaces where manoeuvrability
is an issue and the Akermann steering would fail. Robots implementing an omni-directional
drive system are also able to de-couple translational and rotational motion.

3
2.1 Omni-directional Drive Systems

Holonomicity in robotics refers to the relationship between the controllable and total
degrees of freedom (DOF) of a given robot [14]. Mobile robotic vehicles are classed as
holonomic if the controllable DOF are greater than or equal to their total DOF. If the
controllable DOF are less than the total DOF, it is then classed as non-holonomic.

An Omni-directional drive system is capable of simultaneous rotation and translation in

any direction, and therefore as a minimum is a 3-DOF system which is classed as holonomic.
To achieve Omni-directional motion a minimum of three wheels are required, however,
more than three wheels provides redundancy and the system can then be described as
‘over-determined’ [15][16].

The basis of most common Omni-directional drive system are wheels that allow free-
wheeling motion in the unconstrained direction which is orthogonal to the actual drive
direction of the wheel. It is the combination of such wheels applying a force on the centre
of mass resulting in a velocity being induced on the system, causing a single wheel or a
combination of wheels to free-wheel in the unconstrained direction to a certain degree.
Omni-directional transport systems may be separated into two basic classes: orthogonal
wheels (pairs of near-spherical wheels) and universal wheels (wheels with rollers on their
circumference).

2.1.1 Orthogonal Wheels

As described by Pin and Killough [17] the “orthogonal-wheels” concept provides normal
traction in a given direction whilst being able to free-wheel in the orthogonal direction to
that of the normal traction.

These wheels rely on the timed and synchronised transition of the wheels rotation about
their vertically mounted axis, perpendicular to the surface of the floor.

4
For example, the inner wheel may shift from providing normal traction to free-wheeling
and the outer wheel may shift from free-wheeling to providing normal traction.

2.1.2 Universal Wheels

Pin and Killough [17] also discuss the “universal wheel” concept, which is an assembly
that provides a combination of constrained and unconstrained motions whilst rotating.

The most common form of a universal wheel is a large wheel with many small rollers
mounted in its rim. As the drive shaft turns the wheel rotates in the actuated direction
and the rollers mounted in the rim allow the wheel to free-wheel parallel to the drive shaft,
thereby providing the unconstrained direction of motion.

One particular variation of this universal wheel concept is one which incorporates elongated
rollers which are positioned at 45 ◦ from the axis of the main shaft. This wheel design was
pioneered in 1973 by Bengt Ilon, an engineer with the Swedish company Mecanum AB,
and as such is known as a Mecanum wheel or Swedish 45 ◦ [18].

Figure 2.1: Assembled Omniwheel and a dimensional illustration of a single wheel [1].

The Omniwheel, as shown above, is another variation of the universal wheel concept.

5
2.1.3 Omni-directional Robot Configurations

Common Omni-directional robot configurations depend upon the class of wheels deployed:
orthogonal wheels or universal wheels. As such, a large portion of the designs are formed
of: (i) 3-universal wheels, (ii) 3-castor wheels mimicking the orthogonal wheel concept as a
synchronous-drive, and (iii) 4-universal wheels.

The three wheel concept has been implemented in two ways: (i) the classical Omni-
directional configuration of three universal wheels mounted 120◦ apart, radiating from the
centre of the chassis, and (ii) adaptations of this 120◦ geometry implementing orthogonal
wheels or a synchro-drive system.

The orthogonal wheel concept introduced by Pin and Killough [17], has been simplified
in execution by connecting two motors to a wheel that is mounted in a similar fashion to
that of a ‘castor’. The two motors provide a means for independently driving and steering
the wheel simultaneously as described by D. S. Kim et al. [13] and A. El-Shenawy et al.
[19], thereby forming a synchronous-drive mechanism as an adaptation of the orthogonal
wheel concept.

The 4-universal wheel implementation has two forms: (i) the classical arrangement similar
to that of an automobile [20] [21] with each wheel having its own independent drive and (ii)
four universal wheels mounted forming a square [22] [23] whilst maintaining an independent
drive to each wheel.

Robots featuring the classical arrangement of the four wheel design favour an implemen-
tation of the Mecanum wheel with an improvement, also proposed by Bengt Ilon, where
the rollers are mounted centrally whilst being split in two [18]. Am implementation of
this significant improvement to the Mecanum wheel design has also been included in an
industrial Omni-directional forklift by Airtrax [24] and is commonly found in many robotic
designs of this configuration.

6
To ascertain the market viability of Omni-directional drive systems in commercial and
industrial applications, case studies were compiled on various systems currently in operation
and production and are located in Appendix A.1.

2.2 Trajectory Generation and Control

Work by J. Aranda et al. [25] describe a ‘Control Architecture for a Three-wheeled Roller
Robot’, which is driven by stepper motors. The implemented trajectory control process was
heavily dependent upon dead reckoning1 as a means of position estimation and odometry.

Related work by P. Muir et al. [20] illustrates a similar approach utilising dead reckoning
to implement a Kinematics-based wheeled mobile robot control system. Their approach
utilises the actuated inverse and sensed forward solutions, i.e. the Inverse Kinematics of
the robot geometry and Forward Kinematic solution applied to the ‘sensed’ wheel velocities,
to implement dead reckoning.

Further work by D. Feng et al. [16] implemented velocity control with integral action
by means of programmable motor control chips. Their system also allowed the user to
formulate trajectories with manual joystick control as well as execute trajectory profiles as
required.

2.3 Local Robot Navigation and Localisation

With local robot navigation and localisation an a priori model of the environment is not a
prerequisite as the robot senses the environment during motion execution, thereby placing
an emphasis on real-time efficiency.

1
Dead reckoning is the process by which the current position is an estimation based upon a previously
determined position, and advancing that position based on the current velocity, elapsed time, and course.

7
In implementing local navigation, simple Bug Algorithms [26] have been devised where the
motion of the robot is comparable to that of an ant moving around. The most common Bug
Algorithms are comprised of: (i) Bug 1, (ii) Bug 2, and (iii) Tangent Bug Algorithms. The
focus of these algorithm are on modelling boundary following and motion to goal behaviour,
as these traits are easily devised with contact sensors or ultrasonic range-finders.

Local navigation may be implemented by the application of Potential Field Methods such
as the Advanced Potential Field (APF) method or Virtual Force Field (VFF) method [27],
which subject the robot to attractive and repulsive potentials depending on the obstacles in
the environment. However, Potential Field Methods suffer from the local minima problem
and tend to perform poorly in narrow corridors [27][28].

Further to this, robot navigation comprises of two distinct phases, reference guidance
and dead reckoning, as discussed by I. J. Cox [29]. Reference guidance is the process by
which navigation is achieved with respect to a co-ordinate frame based on visible external
landmarks. Dead reckoning on the other hand, is a positional estimation made with respect
to a co-ordinate frame that is inherent to the guidance equipment and its estimate relies
upon the accuracy of its previous estimate, or positional fix.

Dead reckoning offers the advantage of complete self-containment, however, its disadvantage
is that the positional error grows unbounded, unless an independent external reference is
utilised periodically to contain the error. Likewise, the advantage of reference guidance
is that its positional errors are bounded although detection of landmarks and real-time
positional fixing may not always be possible. It is apparent that dead reckoning and
external reference guidance are complementary and a combined implementation of both
approaches can provide for an accurate and robust positioning system.

A revolutionary paper published by Rodney A. Brooks in 1986 titled, “A Robust Layered

Control System for a Mobile Robot” [30], inaugurated a fundamental shift in Artificial
Intelligence (AI) research in robotics. Brooks argued strongly against building control

8
systems for intelligent machines by decomposing the problem at hand into a series of
functional units via symbolic processing approaches. Instead, his Subsumption Architecture
focusses on biologically inspired robotic architectures which address sensorimotor and
perceptual tasks; in essence the AI sets about interacting with the real world rather than
attempting to symbolically reason about it. This perspective is most eloquently described
in his classic paper, “Elephants Don’t Play Chess” [31].

This approach of task achieving behavioural based navigation would result in the robot
working to achieve multiple goals concurrently, with the more critical behaviours forming
the base-line behaviour. These functional behavioural slices are layered together forming a
robust robot control system, where the most fundamental behavioural traits take precedence
above all else, i.e. collision avoidance would form one of the most fundamental behavioural
traits upon which other traits such as mapping and goal searching would build upon.

Simultaneous Localisation and Mapping (SLAM) is a method by which data obtained from
sensor arrays on-board an autonomous robot are utilised to aid in creating a map within
an unknown environment whilst, quite accurately, estimating its current position within
that environment. The inherent inaccuracies and positional errors of the sensor data are
compensated for by utilising statistical tools in SLAM which include Extended Kalman
Filters (EKF), particle filters, Bayesian inference, and Monte Carlo Methods [32].

Work by Davison et al. [33] describes SLAM classically being restricted to sensors such as
laser2 range-finders and sonar3 . Their work is a successful application of SLAM methodology
from mobile robotics to a purely “vision” based sensor such as an uncontrolled camera.

Select concepts and methodologies discussed in this critical review of related work have
been built upon and extended in the theoretical development conducted in the following
chapter, especially with regards to a novel implementation of Trajectory Interpolation.

2
Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation
3
Sound Navigation and Ranging

9
Chapter 3

Theoretical Development

The following theoretical study presents the development of a mathematical model to

evaluate the kinematics of a three-wheeled Omni-directional robot, parametrically generate
a planar path for trajectory navigation, and ultimately evaluate the path in conjunction
with a controller implementing closed-loop feedback with Proportional-Integral control to
employ kinematic and dynamic control over the robot’s motion.

In concluding the study, the challenges faced in implementing accurate localisation and
odometry, for a three-wheeled Omni-directional robot in particular, are the focus of further
discussion.

Ideally, sophisticated autonomous behaviour could be achieved by implementing Visual

Odometry on-board the robot in junction with a highly advanced navigation system; one
capable of recognising and tracking landmarks and utilising this information to compensate
for inaccuracies resulting from sensors and other means of odometry as well as external
disturbances to the system such as surface friction and wheel slip due to loss of traction.

10
3.1 Kinematic Modelling

The geometry of the omni-directional vehicle is shown below in Figure 3.1, where universal
wheels attached to motors have been mounted 120◦ apart from the centre of mass (CM) of
the robot. Therefore, each wheel assembly can propel in the constrained direction of the
actuator or free-wheel passively, orthogonally to the rotating direction of the actuator.

The model assumes that the point of symmetry coincides with the CM of the robot,
although this may not be the case in the implemented robot due to a shifting of the CM
by the various on-board components attached to the chassis.

Figure 3.1: Geometry of the Omni-directional robot [2].

Two frames of reference exist: (i) The absolute reference frame (x, y), and (ii) the internal
reference frame (Xref , Yref ) where ψ̇ is the angular velocity (in rad/sec) of the latter with
respect to the absolute reference frame. The translational velocity of the robot (in m/s)
is denoted by |V | and its direction with respect to the internal reference is denoted by

11
3.2 Path Planning and Planar Trajectory Generation

Planning the path and trajectory of the robot requires considering different aspects such
as specifying a trajectory, representing this trajectory in software, and computing the
trajectory at runtime.

The path defined by the trajectory generator is further decomposed into the individual
wheel velocities by means of Inverse Kinematics, as previously discussed, where it populates
a set point table managed by the trajectory planner. The set points are fed into a closed-
loop control system, which utilises pose and velocity feedback for ultimately controlling
the robot.

The Euclidean distance between the robot and a way-point or goal could be described
in its simplest form as a linear spline trajectory. Although splines may be adapted into
quadratic, cubic, and higher order splines a different approach to trajectory generation has
been considered.

A novel approach has been considered in this study to geometrically define a curve and
to produce a resultant parametric function to reflect the path by utilising a cubic Bézier-
Bernstein polynomial since the properties of the curve, such as tension and continuity, are
modifiable by simple matrix manipulations.

This study is an application of similar work by Sharma et al. [34], where Bézier curves were
extended into 3-dimensions for trajectory generation and path planning of autonomous
Aerobots.

Bézier curves are the basis for many CAD1 operations and utilising them in 2-dimensional
planar robot navigation makes its application unique in the study of controlling Omni-
directional robots, and can be applied to other wheeled or legged robotic designs.

1
Computer Aided Design

15
 Figure 3.4: Plot of the cubic Bernstein basis functions obtained in MATLAB.

Equation (3.12) can be expanded to give,

   
 n   n 
P(u) = P0 (1 − u)n + P1 
 
 u(1 − u)n−1 + P2   u2 (1 − u)n−2 + · · ·
 
1 2
 
 n  n−1
+Pn−1   u (1 − u) + Pn un , u ∈ [0, 1] (3.14)
 
n−1

Equation (3.13) may be used to obtain all the Berstein basis polynomials up to degree
n = 3, since cubic Bézier curves have four control points and as such require a cubic

19
3.3 Trajectory Navigation

Figure 3.8: The robot’s pose following a cubic Bézier path (not to scale).

The unique use of cubic Bézier curves for trajectory navigation of Omni-directional robots
presented in this study alone cannot control the robots motion and as such this knowledge
and methodology needs to interact with the Inverse Kinematic solution of the robot and a
closed-loop control system for complete kinematic and dynamic control of the robot.

In the implementation of linear point to point motion, the motion itself from one point to
the next provides the direction of the velocity vector and can be achieved with minimal
computation.

The task of navigating a more complicated path, however, requires the velocity vector of
the robot to follow the path’s curvature and therefore it can be seen that the task is reduced
to simply evaluating the gradient of the tangent to the Bézier curve at each sub interval.
The tangent to the curve at each point is essentially a representation of the velocity vector
|V | at that instantaneous point in time and once obtained this can be decomposed into its

25
4.2 Mechanical Design

Figure 4.2: Photograph of the supplied chassis and mounted hardware.

An existing chassis was provided for the project, as shown in Figure 4.2. This included
three DC motors mounted at 120◦ apart on an acrylic base plate via CNC1 milled mounts
with Omniwheel assemblies attached to the end of each drive shaft by means of a collar
and stop screw.

Metric hex cap screws were used throughout the design as they provided a secure, ‘non-slip’,
means for tightening with the use of hex screwdrivers or Allen keys.

The acrylic base plate featured sufficient space to install large batteries and associated
circuitry. Aluminium spacers from the base plate allowed for a top acrylic layer to mount
logic boards, circuits, and sensors.

1
Computer Numerical Control

32
4.2.1 Motors

Three geared reversible DC motors were provided with the robot chassis, as previously
detailed. The electrical and performance specifications of the motors are tabulated below,

Manufacturer Hsiang Neng / Jameco Electronics

Model HN-GH12-1634T-R / GH35GM Series
Jameco Part No. 161382
Rated Voltage (VDC) 12
Operating Range (VDC) 4.5 - 12
Current @ Max. Efficiency (mA) 293
Speed @ Max. Efficiency (RPM) 145
Torque @ Max. Efficiency (kg-cm) 0.85
Gear Ratio 30:1
Table 4.1: DC Motor Electrical and Performance Specifications [10].

Dimensional specifications of the motors are further detailed in the datasheet [10].

Figure 4.3: US Digital E4P-300-079 Optical Encoder.

The US Digital E4P-300-079 Optical Encoder [47] was attached to each motor, thereby
providing digital quadrature encoder feedback at 300 Cycles-Per-Revolution (CPR) on C-A
with the C-B output 90◦ out of phase, as well as requiring its own 5 VDC power supply.

33
The supplied motors were ideal for the task, as they offered a gearing ratio of 30:1 and
thereby provided a relatively high torque. The resulting torque developed at the drive
shaft allowed the robot to rapidly accelerate its entire mass to a desired velocity.

4.3 Preliminary Electronic Design

The electronic design on-board MARV was largely directed by the conceptual overview
presented in Figure 4.1. It directly outlined the need for a higher level of software to
be implemented on a computer, with fast processing capabilities. This also allowed for
the robot’s electronics to be scalable, simply by interfacing the computer with other
forms of sensors and communication mediums. For example, the robot may be given
WiFi capabilities for development and monitoring purposes as well as attaching an Omni-
directional camera for the purpose of visual odometry [48][49].

The low-level sub-systems were clearly outlined, where the motors and sensors needed to
be interfaced with the on-board computer. Since the computer or low-level microcontroller
(MCU or µC) are unable to provide the high currents and protection circuitry for driving
the motors, a suitable motor driver was required.

Since the number of sensors feeding back to the robot could be increased or reduced as
necessary, two independent low level controllers were chosen to tackle each task separately.
Therefore, a self-contained approach was taken towards the development and testing of
each module, until final integration, thereby further aiding any troubleshooting required.

Choosing appropriate MCUs for each task required considerable planning and consideration
of the sensors and actuators involved as well as means for communication and integration
into the final system.

34
4.5.2 The Motor Driver

The motors were driven via PWM signals from the Motor Controller and as such, the
motors needed to be interfaced to the Motor Controller via additional circuitry that would
handle the high current supply and switching, which the MCU simply could not provide
directly as it is only capable of sourcing ∼20 mA per pin designated as an output.

Typical implementations of PWM driven motor drivers utilised a H-bridge of CMOS8

technology (such as MOSFETs9 for example) to handle the task of switching the high
current supply to the motors [58].

To control the motors of MARV, the LMD18200 H-bridge IC by National Semiconductor

was chosen since it is capable of delivering 3 A continuous current at supply voltages
between +12 VDC and +55 VDC and withstand a 6 A spike lasting 200 ms. It also features
a low switch on resistance (typically 0.3 Ω per switch), TTL and CMOS compatible inputs,
thermal shutdown at 170 ◦ C, internal clamp diodes, and shorted load protection.

A functional description of the pinout are tabulated in Table 4.6 as obtained from the
datasheet [5], which should be referred for further details.

Pinout Description

Pin 3 DIRECTION Input

Pin 4 BRAKE Input
Pin 5 PWM Input
Pin 6 VS Power Supply
Pin 7 GROUND Connection
Pin 8 CURRENT SENSE Output
Pin 9 THERMAL FLAG Output
Table 4.6: Description of the pinout of the LMD18200 H-bridge Integrated Circuit.
Source: LMD18200 H-bridge Integrated Circuit Datasheet [5]
8
Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor
9
Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistor

45
The generated CAD/CAM files for prototyping the PCB were carefully scrutinised using
gerbv with the following command line arguments: $ gerbv MotorDriver.sol MotorDriver.cmp
MotorDriver.plc MotorDriver.drd and the output are shown below.

Figure 4.9: PCB Gerber output showing the silkscreen printing.

Figure 4.10: PCB Gerber output showing the component side and silkscreen.

Figure 4.11: PCB Gerber output showing the solder side and silkscreen.

48
4.7.4 Asynchronous Serial Communications

Introduced in 1969, the serial port on personal computers were usually of the RS-232-C,
EIA-232-D, or EIA-232-E standard. These three standards were essentially the same as
the original RS (Recommended Standard) prefix became the EIA (Electronics Industries
Association) and later EIA/TIA after EIA merged with TIA (Telecommunication Industries
Association) [63].

Although it is nearly impossible to effectively screen an RS-232 signal on a signal cable

from internal noise and crosstalk, the influence of external noise could be greatly reduced
by utilising a cable that is entirely screened. As the baud17 rate and line length increases,
the effect of capacitance between the different lines introduces serious crosstalk until the
data itself is unreadable, however, this could be reduced by using low capacitance cabling.

Asynchronous transmission of data as per the EIA-232 specification has proved its reliability
over low capacitance data grade cabling such as the grade of cabling used in Universal
Serial Bus (USB) cables. With modern ICs such as the FTDI FT232RL USB to serial
UART interface, an appropriate USB cable was utilised to interface the on-board computer
with the MCUs, with one FT232RL IC per MCU.

Further technical details of the on-board serial communications are located in Appendix
C.6.

4.7.4.1 Cyclic Redundancy Check Routines for Verifying Data Integrity

To ensure that the data received is identical to the the data transmitted, routines were
developed as several C programs to compute the CRC-16, CRC-16-CCITT18 , and CRC-32
checksums for given bytes and strings (which were essentially multi-byte arrays). The
17
The number of signal level changes per second, regardless of the information content of those signals.
18
International Telegraph and Telephone Consultative Committee, (from the French name “Comité
Consultatif International Téléphonique et Télégraphique”)

59
programs were tested extensively with the aid of an online CRC calculator application [64].

In the event the direct computation of the CRC checksum on-board the MCU was far too
processor intensive, alternative algorithms were developed for employing a look-up table 19
to achieve the same task. However, implementing a look-up table on a MCU in reality
would sacrifice available ROM capacity in favour of increased computational performance.

CRC-16-CCITTpolynomial = x16 + x12 + x5 + 1 (4.3)

The direct CRC-16-CCITT checksum routine, implementing the polynomial shown in

Equation (4.3), was tested with a PIC18F4331 running at 8 MHz on a 25-byte payload.
An I/O pin was pulsed to time the duration of the actual computation, and the output
captured via the oscilloscope is shown in Figure 4.18. The implemented routine is proven
to be efficient, taking a mere 2 ms to execute.

Figure 4.18: Efficiency of the Direct CRC-16-CCITT Checksum on a 25-byte Payload.

The source code of the direct CRC-16-CCITT routine is located in Appendix E.1.

19
A lookup table is a data structure, usually an array or associative array, used to replace a runtime
computation with a simpler array indexing operation. The speed gain can be significant, since retrieving
a value from memory is often faster than undergoing an expensive computation but at the sacrifice of
available memory.

60
Chapter 5

Implementation

The electronic design on-board MARV was implemented to provide a working demonstration
of the robot so as to exhibit sophisticated Omni-directional motion by evaluating the
Inverse Kinematics of the robot’s geometry.

Due to time and budgetary constraints, many aspects of the Theoretical Development
including discrete PI motor control, dead reckoning, Bézier path generation and navigation
via the on-board computer, and the Control Application remain to be implemented.

The underlying electronic modules were extensively tested and implemented, including the
Motor Controller, Motor Driver, and Serial Communications with CRC Error Checking as
well as integrating the sub-systems together in constructing the robot.

The Motor Driver in particular underwent stringent performance and operational testing in
driving and controlling the DC motors by means of Sign/Magnitude PWM control, thereby
ensuring safe and efficient operation.

Integrating further components such as quadrature encoder feedback, ultrasonic range-

finders, and the Sensor Controller into the design remain to be implemented in the future
as well.

61
5.1 Equipment and Instrumentation

The following equipment and instrumentation were utilised in the development and imple-
mentation of the robot.

Description Make and Model

Digital Multimeter Fluke 189 True RMS Multimeter

Fluke SureGrip TP220 Test Probes
Fluke SureGrip AC220 Alligator Test Clips
Fluke SureGrip TL222 Silicon Insulated Test Leads
Oscilloscope Tektronix 2012B 100 MHz, 2CH, 1Gs/S
Tektronix P2220 Probes (Pair)
PIC Programmer Olimex MPLAB ICD2 ‘Clone’ PIC Programmer
Bench Power Supply Maplin 0-20 VDC 5 A Power Supply (Ref. N93CX)
Battery Charger Maplin 12 VDC 350 mA SLA Charger (Ref. LL30H)
Table 5.1: Detailed description of instrumentation utilised in the development of the robot.

5.2 Initial Design Considerations

The design was focussed on utilising a project box to house the ‘core’ electronics including
the Motor Controller, Sensor Controller, the Motor Drivers, and associated circuitry. This
central hub would in-turn interface with the motors, on-board computer, and power sources.

Installing the low-level modules into a separate enclosure would allow them to be tested
in situ as well as offering the capability of easily being isolated from rest of the robot for
routine maintenance and troubleshooting.

The entire mass of cabling from the sensors, motors, optical encoders, power supplies, and
on-board computer would interface directly with the dedicated enclosure.

62
5.3 Final Design and Integration

Due to time and budgetary constraints, the final design of the robot was restricted to
a simple open-loop demonstration of motor control whilst ensuring this implementation
offered the ease of true plug and play connectivity during development and testing.

5.3.1 Electronic Module Implementation

5.3.1.1 Motor Controller

The Motor Controller was prototyped on breadboard and mounted inside a translucent
polycarbonate ‘Hammond’ project box.

Figure 5.1: Prototyped Motor Controller Integrated into the Project Box.

The miniature breadboard at the back contained the voltage regulation circuitry whilst
the project box was drilled to accommodate a power switch, power LED1 indicator, 4mm
Banana connectors for power, and routing of wiring to other modules and a panellised
Hirose HR10 ICSP connector.
1
Light Emitting Diode

63
5.3.1.2 Motor Driver

The CAD/CAM files were sent to SilverCircuits in Malaysia [65] for production, where
they were fabricated as dual layer PCBs with Plated Through Hole (PTH) immersion silver
surface finishing, 1/16” FR4 1 oz copper traces, dual sided solder-masking, and silkscreen
printing on the (top) component layer. Since all the components utilised PTH, none of the
components required soldering on the solder side - as often seen in dual sided PCBs with
SMT2 components, also referred to as Surface Mount Devices (SMD).

The received PCBs were soldered using an OKI Metcal PS-800E High Performance Soldering
System with RoHS3 certified components and lead-free solder.

Figure 5.2: The Motor Driver with FT232RL USB to Serial interfaces mounted to the left.

Initial testing was carried out on the Motor Driver with only a single LMD18200 ‘block’
soldered onto the PCB and a single motor attached with a 12 VDC supply obtained from
the bench power supply.

The testing was continued with all three motors attached to the completely assembled
Motor Driver, initially with the Motor Controller breadboard located outside of the project
box, as shown in Figure 5.3.

2
Surface-Mount Technology.
3
Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive

64
5.3.2.2 Power Control PWM Module Testing

The Power Control PWM Module was configured with PDCXL=0x00 and the output of
PWM1 and PWM3 are shown below as each channel was alternatively increased in duty
cycle ratio until reaching 100%,

Figure 5.6: Power Control PWM Module Duty Cycle Output.

The accuracy of the PWM signals generated by the Power Control PWM Module, are
studied in Chapter 6.

69
5.3.3 Control Application Software Development

The Control Application utilised a 3rd party serial port Application Programming Interface
(API) that is distributed freely via the GPL6 license. The ‘ezV24’ API [67] is implemented
as a simple library which provides control over the serial ports of a Linux system.

The Control Application was developed to transmit bytes and strings as well as read the
‘receive’ buffer, only if the buffer had received data. This implementation allowed for the
Control Application to operate at maximum efficiency without having to waste resources
by constantly monitoring the serial port.

5.4 The Completed Robot Prototype

The wiring of the motors were completely redone with routing of the cables to the Motor
Driver PCB, that was mounted onto the side of the project box by means of heavy duty
Velcro.

Figure 5.7: Wiring of the Motors.

6
GNU General Public License

70
An in-line 20 mm screw fit fuse-holder, with a 3 A slow blow fuse, was installed with a
SPST7 switch between the dedicated SLA and Motor Driver circuitry.

Figure 5.8: In-line Fuse Holder Installed.

The project box was drilled to facilitate the cabling from the Motor Driver and FT2323RL
USB to Serial interfaces, to enter the enclosure, encased in braided cable sheathing.

Figure 5.9: Project Box Cabling.

7
Single Pole Single Throw; Configuration for an on/off toggling action of the switch.

71
The following image shows the panellised Hirose HR10 connector, which allowed the MCU
to be programmed via ICSP without the need for accessing the project box.

Figure 5.10: Hirose HR10 Panellised Connector for ICSP of the MCU.

The completed robot implementing open-loop motor control is shown below, with the ICD2
programmer attached via the panellised ICSP connector.

Figure 5.11: The Completed Robot.

72
Chapter 7

Discussion

The open-loop performance of the robot was not quantifiable as its operation was directly
dependent on the voltage across the battery at any particular moment in time.

Since a direct means of Euclidean odometry, dead reckoning, or quadrature encoder feedback
was not implemented on-board, the robot prototype could not be instructed to move an
Euclidean distance so as to compare the actual distance travelled as a measure of its
accuracy.

Further to this, the lack of discrete PI control implemented on-board resulted in the robot
being unable to maintain the reference velocity of each individual wheel between set point
traversal - as made clear during repeated testing of the open-loop system. Therefore,
tangible results of the robot’s performance could not be obtained.

The review of related work, in Chapter 2, suggested that position estimation was primarily
achieved through dead reckoning and this level of accuracy was significantly improved
upon when coupled with a means of reference guidance.

76
Rather than attempting to evaluate robot’s entire performance, select sub-systems were
tested as reported in Chapter 6. Further experimentation would have required many of
the features discussed in Chapter 4 and Chapter 5 to be included in the robot prototype,
with dead reckoning as a minimum requirement.

7.1 Further Work

In enabling dead reckoning, feedback from the quadrature encoders would need to be
interfaced with the QEI of the Motor Controller’s MCU. Since each of the US Digital
optical encoders require its own dedicated supply of power, three I/O pins from the MCU
could be utilised as a means for ‘selecting’ which encoder is to be sampled by the MCUs
QEI interface at that particular point in time.

The robot prototype was lacking the implemented Sensor Controller, and it would need to
be incorporated into the design along with a selection of sensors to provide feedback with
regards to its ‘actual pose’ during set-point traversal. The accelerometer could be coupled
with a gyroscope to deploy a complete Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) to further aid in
the positional estimation of the robot.

Reference guidance would enable the robot to improve its position estimation greatly and
as such Visual Odometry with a catadioptic camera could be directly integrated with
the on-board computer over USB. Further to this, the robot could also be given WiFi
capability by installing a suitable USB Wifi adaptor on-board the computer as a means for
wirelessly monitoring and controlling the robot as required.

Another avenue of exploration would be to implement a bootloader1 onto the MCUs of the
Motor and Sensor Controllers. This would allow for the firmware of the controllers to be
1
A bootloader, in terms of microcontrollers, is the term given to a form of firmware that occupies a
certain area of ROM. It allows for machine code to be executed on-board simply by uploading the user
compiled firmware over a serial link, without the use of a hardware programmer.

77
updated as required over a serial connection without the requirement of a separate PIC
programmer.

As the high level control is handled by the on-board computer, task achieving behavioural
control could be enabled with the use of the POSIX2 pthread library and POSIX timers.
This high level real-time operating system would therefore allow the implementation of the
Subsumption Architecture, as described in Chapter 2.

SLAM could be incorporated together with cubic Bézier Trajectory Generation and
Navigation to truly enable the robot to autonomously map and navigate itself within
unknown environments. This form of advanced navigation could be incorporated with a
means for modelling surface friction, thereby allowing the robot to make the necessary
adjustments to maintain its desired course.

As suggested in Chapter 3, a surface scanning optical encoder could be implemented

to provide a direct means of odometry to further aid in improving the robots position
estimation.

In terms of improving the actual robots construction, another ‘layer’ could be provided
by the installation of another set of aluminium spacers on the top layer. This would
provide more space to incorporate more sensors, batteries, and other electronics as required.
However, care should be taken so as to ensure the robot is not made heavier than the
torque currently provided by the motors - else they will need replacing as well.

Further research into the performance of the developed discrete-PI controller could aid
the robot in further maintaining the reference velocities of its individual wheels during
set-point traversal.

2
Portable Operating System Interface

78
Chapter 8

Conclusions

This research, based on a critical review of related work in this and related fields, lead to
the development of a navigation system incorporating a novel application of CAD/CAM
tools for Trajectory Interpolation, as well as the design and development of a fully scalable
electronic architecture implementing an on-board computer aboard the robot.

The interface between the low-level controllers and on-board computer were further en-
hanced with an industry recognised standard for error detection of transmitted information.
The developed control system resulted in the design and fabrication of a compact and
reliable DC Motor Controller, which was scalable due to its ‘block’ design, as well as
the development of a discrete-time PI controller for implementation in the firmware of a
low-level controller.

As a result of time and budgetary constraints, the developed prototype did not incorporate
all facets of this research, however, it demonstrated sophisticated Omni-directional motion
under open-loop control.

The primary project objectives involving the development of a control and navigation
system were achieved, although the developed prototype may be improved upon in terms
of accuracy and performance whilst increasing the complexity of the system.

79
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Appendix B

Theoretical Development:
Mathematical Derivations and
Simulations

B.1 Continuous-Time Simulation of PI/PID Control

of an Ideal DC Motor

Figure B.1: Traditional PI Control Diagram [8].

The traditional PI control system in Figure B.1 could be described in the Laplace (frequency)
domain illustrating the integral action using positive feedback with a first-order system as
shown in Figure B.2.

91
 Figure B.2: Block diagram of a PI controller.

The transfer function of a PI controller is obtained below from the block diagram, Figure
B.2, where Ti is the integral time constant,

1 + sTi Kp Ki
Gue = Kp = + Kp = + Kp (B.1)
sTi sTi s

To simulate the PI control, first a mathematical model of an ideal DC motor was developed
and a simplified equivalent electric circuit of the armature windings of the motor are shown
below.

Figure B.3: Equivalent Circuit Diagram of an Ideal DC Motor.

dθ
The angular velocity of the motor shaft is given by ω(t) = and the angular acceleration
dt
d2 θ
of is given by ω̇(t) = .
dt2

92
 Figure B.6: Unit Step Response of an Ideal DC Motor Under PI Control.

To evaluate the response obtained under PI control in this simulation, derivative control
was introduced and observed. The simulation was carried out with the controller in ‘PID’
mode and the following parameters Kp = 500, Ki = 100, and Kd = 40.

Figure B.7: Unit Step Response of an Ideal DC Motor Under PID Control.

The PID response obtained offered significant improvement over PI control alone as the
response reached steady-state in little over 0.5 s with no overshoot and sufficient damping.

96
B.2 Discrete PI Controller Design

Taking the derivative of Equation (3.27) with Kd = 0 and Ki = Kp /Ti ,

Kp
u̇(t) = Kp ė(t) + Ki e(t) = Kp ė(t) + e(t) (B.13)
Ti

The derivatives u̇(t) and ė(t) are approximated utilising the forward finite-difference
approach [36], where h is an infinitesimally small step size, for use in a low-level controller.

f (t + h) − f (t)
f 0 (t) = lim ≈ f 0 (t) (B.14)
h→0 h

Hence,

uk+1 − uk ek+1 − ek
u̇(t) = ; ė(t) = (B.15)
h h

Therefore, substituting the approximations to the derivatives of u̇(t) and ė(t) from Equation
(B.15) into Equation (B.13) and collecting the terms results in the discrete-time PI controller.
The step size, h, has been re-defined as the sample time, ∆T , for clarity.

 
ek ∆T
uk+1 = uk + Kp ek+1 + − ek (B.16)
Ti

Limits will need to be imposed on the output of the discrete-time PI controller, uk+1 , and
ensure it is within the limits of the PWM control (Figure B.1) being applied to the motors.

97
B.3 Linear Splines by Lagrange Interpolation

The elementary Lagrange interpolation formula for a set of data points xi , yi and i = 1, ..., n
and n > 1 with a degree no greater than n − 1, is shown below,

n
Y x − xj
lin (x) = , i = 1, ..., n (B.17)
x i − xj
j=1,j6=i

Its value at any data point within the data set, xk , is either 1 or 0 and as such,

n
Y xk − xj
lin (xk ) = = 1, for i = k (B.18)
j=1,j6=i
xi − xj

n
Y xk − xj
lin (xk ) = = 0, for i 6= k (B.19)
j=1,j6=i
xi − xj

which is equivalent to,

 
 
1, i = k

 

lin (xk ) = δik = (B.20)
 
 0, i 6= k 
 

The Lagrange interpolation polynomial of degree n − 1 is [35],

n
X
pn−1 (x) = yi lin (x) (B.21)
i=1

99
and its values at the data points are therefore given by,

n
X n
X
pn−1 (xk ) = yi lin (xk ) = yi δik = yk , k = 1, ..., n (B.22)
i=1 i=1

B.4 Recursive Definition for Computing Bernstein

Polynomials

 
 n−1  i
(1 − u) Bi,n−1 (u) + uBi−1,n−1 (u) = (1 − u)   u (1 − u)n−1−i +
 
i
 
 n − 1  i−1
u  u (1 − u)n−1−(i−1)
 
i−1
   
 n−1  i  n−1  i
=   u (1 − u)n−i +   u (1 − u)n−i
   
i i−1
   
 n − 1   n − 1  i
=  +  u (1 − u)n−i
   
i i−1
 
 n  i n−i
  u (1 − u)
=  
i
= Bi,n (u) (B.23)

100