Omnidirectional Robot Undercarriages with Standard Wheels - A Survey

Abstract

In the last decades, omnidirectional mobile robot platforms have entered many areas of industrial automation and daily life. While platforms with universal and Mecanum wheels are quite common, standard wheels have the advantage of robustness against uneven ground and slippage. This paper gives an overview on recent developments in the design of omnidirectional undercarriages with standard wheels and categorizes mechanical designs according to their holonomy. Furthermore, requirements for different applications are discussed and simple evaluation criteria are proposed that can be used to compare designs.