4: Mobile robots
This chapter discusses how a robot platform moves, that is, how its pose changes with time as a function of its control inputs. We will consider only two types of platform which are important exemplars. The first is a wheeled vehicle like a car which operates in a 2-dimensional world. It can be propelled forwards or backwards and its heading direction controlled by changing the angle of its steered wheels. % which makes the model quite simple and this type of vehicle is extremely common. The second platform is a quadcopter, a flying vehicle, which is an example of a robot that moves in 3-dimensional space. Quadcopters are becoming increasing popular as a robot platform since they can be quite easily modelled and controlled.
This chapter covers:
- Mobility, configuration & task space, non-holonomic constraints
- Car-like vehicles, Ackerman/bicycle steering model
- Control to move to a point, to a line, to follow a target, to a pose
- Quadcopter flying robot
General
- DARPA Grand Challenge
- Thesis of Paul Pounds ANU, on quadrotor design and control
- Open-source software and tutorial for quadrotors
- Mikrokopter