Mobile and Serial Robots

(Robots Móviles y Articulados)

Kinematics of Mobile Robots
MCTG1021

Carlos Saldarriaga, PhD

cxsaldar@espol.edu.ec
Kinematics

• Kinematics is the most basic study of how mechanical

systems behave.
• In mobile robotics, we need to understand the mechanical
behavior
• Design appropriate mobile robots for tasks
• Understand how to create control software for an instance of
hardware

• The chief difference between a mobile robot and a

manipulator arm also introduces a significant challenge for
position estimation.
• Manipulators have one end fixed to the envmnt. Measure the
position of EE by understanding the kinematics and intermediate
joints (current sensor data)
• MR’s self contained, wholly move wrt its environment
Kinematics (cont)

• There is no direct way to measure a mobile robot’s position

instantaneously. Instead, one must integrate the motion over
time.
• Each individual wheel contributes to the robot’s motion and,
at the same time, imposes constraints on robot motion.
Wheels are tied together based on robot chassis geometry,
and therefore their constraints combine to form constraints on
the overall motion
• Clear reference frame necessary
Relative Positioning:
Odometry and Kinematics
• Given wheel velocities at any given time, compute
position/orientation for any future time
• Advantages
• Self-contained
• Can get positions anywhere along curved paths
• Always provides an “estimate” of position
• Disadvantages
• Requires accurate measurement of wheel velocities over time,
including measuring acceleration and deceleration
• Position error grows over time
Robot Reference Frame

• The total dimensionality of this

robot chassis on the plane is 3, 2
for position in the plane and 1 for
orientation along the vertical axis,
orthogonal to the plane.
• The axes XI and YI define an
arbitrary inertial basis on the
plane as the global reference
frame from some origin O
• The basis {XR, YR} defines two
axes relative to P on the robot
chassis and is thus the robot’s
local reference frame
• Pose of the robot
Rotation Matrix

• To describe robot motion in terms

of component motions, it will be •
necessary to map motion along
the axes of the global reference
frame to motion along the axes of
the robot’s local reference frame.

• Orthogonal rotation matrix

• This operation is denoted by

because the computation •
of this operation depends on the
value of
 Example

• Given some velocity in the

global reference frame we can
compute the components of
motion along this robot’s local
axes XR and YR.
The rotation matrix is orthogonal, so

• In this case, due to the specific

angle of the robot, motion
along XR is equal to and
motion along YR is -
Rotation Example 2

• If a mobile robot has a velocity of in the global reference

frame and is positioned at and 3 with respect to the global
reference frame. What is the motion along and due to with
respect to the robot reference?

• This robot will rotate with the same speed with respect to the robot
reference frame as the global reference frame. However, the linear
velocity along the robot’s x-axis and y-axis are a combination of
the velocities with respect to the global reference frame.
Rotation Example 2 (cont.)

• What if the robot velocity was (2 cm/s, 3 cm/s, 5 rad/s) wrt the
global reference frame, what is the velocity wrt the robot’s local
reference frame?

• What if the robot velocity was (2 cm/s, 3 cm/s, 5 rad/s) wrt the
robot’s local reference frame, what is the robot’s velocity wrt the
global reference frame?

HW2: Draw a sketch, prove that the computations are correct. Do the results
make sense? What if it was a differential drive robot? What if it was a Uranus
robot? Due next Wednesday
Forward Kinematics

• How does the robot move, given

its geometry and the speeds of its
wheels?
• This differential drive robot has
two wheels, each with radius r.
Given a point P centered between
the two drive wheels, each wheel
is a distance l from P. Given r, l, θ,
and the spinning speed of each
wheel, and , a FK model is:

l
l
 Forward Kinematics

• The strategy will be to first compute

the contribution of each of the two
wheels in the local reference
• The robot moves forward Along
+ . First consider the contribution
of each wheel’s spinning speed to
the translation speed at P in the
direction of +

• These 2 contributions can simply

be added to calculate the +
component of .
l
l
Example

• Suppose that the robot is positioned such that θ= , r=1, and l=1. If the
robot engages its wheels unevenly, with speeds =4 and =2, we can
compute its velocity in the global reference frame:
Forward Kinematics Example 2

• A robot is positioned at a 60° angle with respect to the global reference frame and
has wheels with a radius of 1 cm. These wheels are 2 cm from the center of the
chassis. If the speeds of wheels 1 and 2, are 4 rad/s and 2 rad/s, respectively.
What is the robot velocity with respect to the global reference frame?

• This robot will move instantaneously along the global reference frame x-axis with a
speed of - cm/s and along the y-axis at - cm/s while rotating with a speed of -
rad/second.
 Mobile and Serial Robots
(Robots Móviles y Articulados)
Kinematics of Mobile Robots
MCTG1021

Carlos Saldarriaga, PhD

cxsaldar@espol.edu.ec
Bicycle Model

• A commonly used model for a

four-wheeled car-like vehicle
• The bicycle has a rear wheel fixed
to the body and the plane of the
front wheel rotates about the
vertical axis to steer the vehicle.
• The dashed lines show the
direction along which the wheels
cannot move, the lines of no
motion, and these intersect at a
point known as the Instantaneous
Center of Rotation (ICR)
 Example
Due to the
• For a car modeled as a bicycle kinematic
with a wheel base length L=7 constraint and the
cm driven by its rear wheel of reference point
radius r=2 cm, an angular
velocity is given as φ = 1.5 φ
rad/s. Obtain its motion in the
φ
global reference frame when
θ=45˚ and the steering angle
γ=15˚

You could also directly use

the expression from the previous slide
depending on the given data and model

• Would there be any difference in the results if the ‘car’ was driven by its front
wheel? Prove it.
• What if the diameters of the front and back wheels were different?
 Example 2

For a car modeled as a bicycle with a wheel base length L=10 cm driven
by its rear wheel of radius r=3 cm. What would its angular velocity φ and
steering angle γ be if the motion in the global reference frame is
? θ=60˚
𝑻
𝑹 𝑰
φ
solve for φ
φ̇ and γ

𝑰 𝑹
φ

φ̇

Would we be able to impose any global motion arbitrarily for any orientation?
 Example 3

For a car modeled as a bicycle with a wheel base length L=10 cm driven
by its rear wheel of radius r=3 cm. What would be its angular velocity φ
and steering angle γ if the motion in the global reference frame is
? θ=30˚
𝑰 𝑹 solve for φ
φ and γ

φ
φ
φ
φ
φ

We cannot just impose any global motion arbitrarily for any orientation
 Example 3 (cont.)

For a car modeled as a bicycle with a wheel base length L=10 cm driven
by its rear wheel of radius r=3 cm. What would be its angular velocity φ
and steering angle γ if the motion in the global reference frame is
? θ=30˚
𝑹
𝑻
𝑰
solve for φ
φ and γ

We cannot just impose any global motion arbitrarily for any orientation
Wheel Kinematic Constraints

• 1st step of Kinematic model --> express constraints on the motions

of individual wheels
• These motions are combined to compute motion for the whole
robot (chassis)
• Several important assumptions:
• The wheel plane must remain vertical at all times
• There is one single point of contact between the wheel and
ground plane
• There is no sliding at the single point of contact (pure rolling)
• Movement on a horizontal plane
• Wheels not deformable
• Pure rolling (v = 0 at contact point)
Wheel Kinematic Constraints (cont.)

• No slipping, skidding, sliding

• No friction for rotation around contact point
• Steering axes orthogonal to the surface
• Wheels connected by rigid frame (chassis)

• Constraints
1. The wheel must roll when motion takes place in the
appropriate direction. Rolling Contact
2. The wheel must not slide orthogonal to the wheel plane. No
lateral slippage
 Fixed Standard Wheel

• It has no vertical axis of rotation

for steering. Its angle to the
chassis is thus fixed, and it is
limited to motion back and forth
along the wheel plane and
rotation around its contact point
with the ground plane

• The wheel, which has radius r,

can spin over time, and so its
rotational position around its
horizontal axle is a function of
time t
Fixed Standard Wheel (cont.)

• The rolling constraint for this

wheel enforces that all motion
along the direction of the wheel
plane must be accompanied by
the appropriate amount of wheel
spin so that there is pure rolling at
the contact point

• The sliding constraint for this

wheel enforces that the
component of the wheel’s motion
orthogonal to the wheel plane
must be zero:
Steered Standard Wheel

• It differs from the fixed standard wheel only in that there is an

additional degree of freedom: the wheel may rotate around a
vertical axis passing through the center of the wheel and the
ground contact point.
• Rolling constraint

• Sliding constraint

• β is no longer a constant
• There is no impact on the instantaneous motion constraints
Castor Wheel

• They can steer around a vertical

axis. However, the vertical axis of
rotation doesn’t pass through the
ground contact point. Additional
parameter d.
• The contact point is now at B

• The rolling constraint is identical

• Sliding constraint

Any motion orthogonal to the wheel plane must be balanced by

an equivalent and opposite amount of castor steering motion.
Robot Kinematic Constraints

• A wheeled robot with N wheels of the types described earlier.

• Subscripts: f for fixed wheels, s = steering wheels, c caster wheels, and
sw Swedish wheels. Nf, Ns, Nc, and Nsw,
with N = Nf +Ns + Nc + Nsw.
• The pure rolling conditions
𝟐

• J1 matrices derived from the kinematic constraints. J2 is a constant NxN diagonal

matrix whose entries are the radii of the wheels
Robot Kinematic Constraints

• The nonslip conditions for fixed and steering wheels can be summarized
as
∗
𝟏
3x3 3x1

∗
𝟏
(Nf+Ns)x3

• where C1f and C1s are, respectively, (Nfx3) and (Ns x3) matrices
• These conditions imply that the vector belongs to N[ ∗𝟏 ]. For
any satisfying this condition, there exists a vector and
satisfying:
• 𝟐
∗
• 𝟏𝒄 𝟐𝒄 𝒄 (for castor wheels)

because J2 and C2c are nonsingular matrices.