Mobile Robots—AHP-Based Actuation Solution Selection and Comparison between Mecanum Wheel Drive and Differential Drive with Regard to Dynamic Loads

Abstract

Mobile robots are increasingly used in industrial applications. There are many constructive solutions for mobile robots using various variants of actuation and control. The proposed work presents a low-cost variant of a mobile robot equipped with Mecanum wheels, which uses brushed DC motors, controlled by the PWM method as the actuation solution. In the first part, a multicriteria analysis based on the AHP method was performed for the selection of the actuation solution. Then, using the software tools Simscape Multibody, Matlab, and Simulink, models were developed that allowed the simulation of the operation of the proposed robot, based both on its kinematics and dynamics. Using these models, both the Mecanum wheel drive version and the differential drive version were studied by means of simulation. The simulations mainly aimed at identifying the way the currents vary through the wheel drive motors, in order to find methods to reduce them. The values obtained by the simulation were later compared with those obtained experimentally, and the corresponding conclusions with regard to the accuracy of the models were drawn.