A decoupled dynamical model for differentially driven mobile robots

Abstract

This paper examines the dynamical model of a differentially driven mobile robot. Derivations of the model from the Lagrangian mechanics formulation and the Newton-Euler formulation are presented. The dynamics of this particular model are decoupled from the kinematic differential equations which provides the freedom to choose a preferred kinematic representation of the position and orientation of the robot. The standard Cartesian position and Euler-angle pose are chosen in this work in order to compare the resulting model to two other models which exists in the literature. The model presented does not have the differential algebraic nature that is common to other models and is numerically well-behaved.