Development of Lab Scale MAVeP Mobility Prototype

This paper presents the development, calibration and mechanism control of lab scale Motorised Adjustable Vertical Platform (MAVeP) mobility prototype. MAVeP has been developed and equipped with mecanum wheels to allow an omnidirectional movement. The omnidirectionality, or the ability to move in any direction, without altering the direction of the MAVeP’s body, makes this type of driving useful, especially in narrow and confined areas such as inside satellite assembly, integration and test centre (AITC). Since MAVeP has been delivered at AITC and high accuracy and repeatability movement are crucial during the application, a robot prototype representing MAVeP mobility has been designed and developed. The mechanical and electrical design, including all processes and components, are selected and explained in detail. The development of the robot prototype, its parameters and calibration are also discussed. The DC motor control for separate wheels of the MAVeP mobility prototype using PID controller and the calibrations to synchronous the four wheels’ rotation are also discussed in this paper. The experimental result shows that the robot prototype is established and ready to be used in research.