Development of a reconfigurable mobile robot and precise position estimation based on extended Kalman filter

Abstract

This paper presents design concepts of a reconfiguration mobile robot developed in Hannam University and experimental results of position estimation by multiple sensors. In order to achieve high reliability and mobility in maneuver, driving motors of the mobile robot are assembled inside the wheels of the mobile robot, and the rhombus-shaped structure of the mobile robot with four wheels yields as good adaptability to rough terrain as a six-wheel mobile robot. Since the proposed mobile robot receives multiple sensor signals from odometers and an orientation sensor, states related to position and orientation of the mobile robot are optimally calculated by the extended Kalman filter. Experimental results show that tracking errors of the mobile robot can be reduced remarkably by the optimal state observer.