Simplified Mecanum Wheel Modelling using a Reduced Omni Wheel Model for Dynamic Simulation of an Omnidirectional Mobile Robot

Industrial and technical applications of omnidirectional mobile robots, with Mecanum wheels, are continuously gaining in importance because their excellent mobility, especially in areas with static or dynamic obstacles. The perspective of Industry 4.0 imposes an effective and efficient approach for production in general and then, specific to this application, to implement the control algorithm able to deliver to robot the deliberatively and reactively behaviour. An important tool to achieve these goals is virtualization of the prototype and his simulation in a 3D virtual environment.This paper presents a simplified method of modelling and kinematics simulation in Simscape Multibody™, taking an omnidirectional mobile robot with advantages related to simulation time. The necessary steps to develop inverse kinematics in robots and global reference frame, for specific omnidirectional mobile robot, are depicted in the paper using bottom-up approach with matrix transformation. The 3D modelling process starts from the CAD design, which is then transferred into a Simscape Multibody™ model in order to study the kinematic and dynamic characteristics. Four typical motion models including moving forward, moving laterally, moving in the diagonal direction and rotation have been simulated in Simscape Multibody™.