PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS FOR MOBILE ROBOTS BASED ON MECANUM WHEELS - A SYSTEMATIC SURVEY

Abstract

In this paper a literature review concerning practical applications for mobile robotic platforms based on special wheels (in this case, Mecanum wheel) is presented. Mobile robots equipped with four Mecanum wheels have the omnidirectional property, which means, they have the ability to move instantaneously in any direction, from any configuration. Therefore, compared to conventional platforms, these vehicles possess multiple advantages in terms of their mobility in narrow spaces or crowded environments. They have the ability to easily perform certain tasks in congested environments foreseen with static obstacles, dynamic obstacles or narrow areas. Usually, such environments are found in factory workshops, warehouses, hospitals, etc. Hence the resulting needs to create this kind of robotic platforms to satisfy the requirements of various fields, such as: industrial, military, naval, medical and last but not least, the educational field (as the basis for research). The characteristics of the Mecanum wheel, a short comparison between this type of wheel and a conventional wheel, as well as the constructive and design solutions previously developed are described in the first part of this paper. Then, some application fields and the related systems based on Mecanum wheel are presented.