Paper:
Damping and Transport Control of a Spherical Pendulum on an Omnidirectional Wheeled Robot During Manual Operation
Masafumi Hamaguchi

Interdisciplinary Faculty of Science and Engineering, Shimane University
1060 Nishikawatsu, Matsue, Shimane 690-8504, Japan
Recently, several researchers investigated mobile robots. However, when transporting objects in a complex and confined environment, robots that cannot move in any direction and cannot perform a super pivot turn have a limited range of motion. Therefore, omnidirectional mobile robots have been extensively studied. Mobile robots for transporting objects are often used in factories, public facilities, and restaurants. To shorten transportation time and avoid obstacles, mobile robots sometimes rapidly accelerate, decelerate, or traverse steps, which may cause vibrations and damage to transport objects. Transporting a person may give the person a sense of unease or discomfort. Therefore, vibration control is necessary. This study proposes the manual operation of an omnidirectional mobile robot to perform vibration control of a spherical pendulum, which is a tentative transport object. A notch filter and an optimal servo system were used for vibration control of the pendulum. The vibration of the pendulum generated during operation was reduced using a notch filter, and the vibration of the pendulum excited by the disturbances was suppressed by feedback control using the optimal servo system. The control gain of the optimal servo system was reasonably determined using a genetic algorithm based on a quantitative evaluation of the operability and damping performance. The effectiveness of the control system was verified through simulations and experiments.
Experimental equipment
- [1] A. Georgiev and P. K. Allen, “Localization methods for a mobile robot in urban environments,” IEEE Trans. on Robotics, Vol.20, No.5, pp. 851-864, 2004. https://doi.org/10.1109/TRO.2004.829506
- [2] S. Park and S. Hashimoto, “Autonomous mobile robot navigation using passive RFID in indoor environment,” IEEE Trans. on Industrial Electronics, Vol.56, No.7, pp. 2366-2373, 2009. https://doi.org/10.1109/TIE.2009.2013690
- [3] K. Kurashiki, M. Aguilar, and S. Soontornvanichkit, “Visual navigation of a wheeled mobile robot using front image in semi-structured environment,” J. Robot. Mechatron., Vol.27, No.4, pp. 392-400, 2015. https://doi.org/10.20965/jrm.2015.p0392
- [4] K. Terada, H. Miura, M. Okugawa, and Y. Kobayashi, “Adaptive speed control of wheeled mobile robot on uncertain road condition,” J. Robot. Mechatron., Vol.28, No.5, pp. 687-694, 2016. https://doi.org/10.20965/jrm.2016.p0687
- [5] N. Mukai et al., “Application of object grasping using dual-arm autonomous mobile robot—Path planning by spline curve and object recognition by YOLO—,” J. Robot. Mechatron., Vol.35, No.6, pp. 1524-1531, 2023. https://doi.org/10.20965/jrm.2023.p1524
- [6] A. Watanabe et al., “Ground adaptability of crawler mobile robots with sub-crawler rotary joint compliance,” J. Robot. Mechatron., Vol.36, No.3, pp. 732-745, 2024. https://doi.org/10.20965/jrm.2024.p0732
- [7] K. Sato, K. Watanabe, K. Izumi, and M. Watanabe, “An adaptive PI control system for an omnidirectional mobile robot,” J. Robot. Mechatron., Vol.11, No.5, pp. 349-355, 1999. https://doi.org/10.20965/jrm.1999.p0349
- [8] A. Matsumoto, S. Tsukuda, and G. Yoshita, “Navigation of an omnidirectional mobile robot by teaching a few omnidirectional images,” J. Robot. Mechatron., Vol.16, No.1, pp. 80-89, 2004. https://doi.org/10.20965/jrm.2004.p0080
- [9] T. Ogino, M. Tomono, T. Akimoto, and A. Matsumoto, “Human following by an omnidirectional mobile robot using maps built from laser range-finder measurement,” J. Robot. Mechatron., Vol.22, No.1, pp. 28-35, 2010. https://doi.org/10.20965/jrm.2010.p0028
- [10] T. Ogawa and T. Nakamura, “Path tracking method for traveling-wave-type omnidirectional mobile robot (TORoIII),” J. Robot. Mechatron., Vol.24, No.2, pp. 340-346, 2012. https://doi.org/10.20965/jrm.2012.p0340
- [11] T. Terakawa, M. Komori, K. Matsuda, and S. Mikami, “A novel omnidirectional mobile robot with wheels connected by passive sliding joints,” IEEE/ASME Trans. on Mechatronics, Vol.23, No.4, pp. 1716-1727, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1109/TMECH.2018.2842259
- [12] S. Long, T. Terakawa, M. Yogou, R. Koyano, and M. Komori, “Kinetic analysis of active omni wheel with barrel-shaped rollers for avoiding slippage and vibration,” J. of Mechanisms and Robotics, Vol.16, No.5, Article No.051002, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4062608
- [13] K. Yano and K. Terashima, “Sloshing suppression control of liquid transfer systems considering a 3-D transfer path,” IEEE/ASME Trans. on Mechatronics, Vol.10, No.1, pp. 8-16, 2005. https://doi.org/10.1109/TMECH.2004.839033
- [14] M. Hamaguchi and T. Taniguchi, “Damping and transfer control of liquid in a cylindrical container using a wheeled mobile robot,” J. Robot. Mechatron., Vol.17, No.5, pp. 546-552, 2005. https://doi.org/10.20965/jrm.2005.p0546
- [15] J. Urbano, K. Terashima, T. Miyoshi, and H. Kitagawa, “Velocity control of an omni-directional wheelchair considering user’s comfort by suppressing vibration,” 2005 IEEE/RSJ Int. Conf. on Intelligent Robots and Systems, pp. 3169-3174, 2005. https://doi.org/10.1109/IROS.2005.1545334
- [16] M. Hamaguchi and T. Taniguchi, “Sloshing damping control in a cylindrical container on a wheeled mobile robot using dual-swing active-vibration reduction,” J. Robot. Mechatron., Vol.21, No.5, pp. 642-646, 2009. https://doi.org/10.20965/jrm.2009.p0642
- [17] M. Hamaguchi, “Damping and transfer control system with parallel linkage mechanism-based active vibration reducer for omnidirectional wheeled robots,” IEEE/ASME Trans. on Mechatronics, Vol.23, No.5, pp. 2424-2435, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1109/TMECH.2018.2866916
- [18] M. Hamaguchi and T. Yajima, “Vibration control for sloshing in liquid container in cart with active vibration reducer (transfer on an uneven road),” Mechanical Engineering J., Vol.10, No.4, Article No.23-00136, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1299/mej.23-00136
- [19] L.-C. Lin and H.-Y. Shih, “Modeling and adaptive control of an omni-Mecanum-wheeled robot,” Intelligent Control and Automation, Vol.4, No.2, pp. 166-179, 2013. https://doi.org/10.4236/ica.2013.42021
- [20] K. Furuta, S. Kawaji, T. Mita, and S. Hara, “Mechanical system control,” Ohmsha, Ltd., 1984 (in Japanese).
- [21] M. D. Vose, “The simple genetic algorithm: Foundations and theory,” The MIT Press, 1999. https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/6229.001.0001
- [22] I. Robandi, K. Nishimori, R. Nishimura, and N. Ishihara, “Optimal feedback control design using genetic algorithm in multimachine power system,” Int. J. of Electrical Power & Energy Systems, Vol.23, No.4, pp. 263-271, 2001. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0142-0615(00)00062-4
- [23] H. N. Abramson, “Dynamic behavior of liquids in moving containers,” Applied Mechanics Reviews, Vol.16, No.7, pp. 501-506, 1963.
This article is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internationa License.