Design and control of a Cartesian nonholonomic robot

Abstract

In this article, we discuss how to design and control a Cartesian nonholonomic robot using two balls and two actuators. To verify the realizability of such robots, a prototype is constructed. For feedback control of the robot, a new sensor, which can detect the position and orientation of the robot, is developed using two computer mouses. After deriving the kinematic model of the robot, it is transformed into the chained form for which a simple control law is proposed. Both simulations and control experiments yielded very similar and acceptable control results, which show the correctness of the kinematic model, the efficacy of the control algorithms, and the physical realizability of the proposed nonholonomic robot. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 15: 85–95, 1998