Mecanum-wheel vehicle systems based on position corrective control

This paper introduces a position corrective feedback control method using a vision sensor on Mecanum-wheel omni-directional vehicles. Recently, this omnidirectional vehicle has been developed, and it is sometimes employed in wheelchairs. We believe that by exploiting its unique features, it can be more widely employed as a vehicle robot. The control system is based on unique kinematics under holonomic constraints. A CCD camera, which is a part of the vision sensor system, is suspended from the ceiling of the lab housing the moving vehicle. The vision system is used to correct the vehicle position. The position data of the vehicle is calculated using the visual data. Further, the position of the vehicle is corrected smoothly by continuously entering the data into the position feedback loop. This paper describes the structure of the control system and a position correction feedback method. Further, experimental results obtained from the evaluation of this method are presented.