Inverse Kinematics of a Team of 5-DOF Holonomic Mobile Cooperative Rover Manipulators

Abstract

Omni-rovers are three wheeled rovers with roller bearings circumventing the outer perimeter of each wheel, thus allowing a three degrees of freedom, holonomic rover. Translation within two axes and rotation about the normal increases the immediate capability of said rovers and allows fluid maneuvers when presented with problematic trajectories. With the mentioned capability, omni-rovers are an ideal candidate for use in mobile manipulators (MM), and furthermore, cooperative robotics. Thus, in this article, the forward kinematics of an omni-rover platform in junction with a two degree of freedom (RR) arm is presented. Additionally, the inverse kinematics of two parallel robots carrying a rigid object are modeled, simulated, and examined. As the inverse kinematics becomes increasingly difficult to model as the degrees of freedom increase, a known method for reducing the model is used to simplify the solution; this being the use of the Groebner Bases.