DESIGN OF OMNIDIRECTIONAL MINIROBOTS

Design of Omnidirectional Minirobots

Olimpiu Tatar, Member, SROMECA, Dan Mandru Member, SROMECA, and Adrian Mateiu

is actively twisted around a vertical axis. This reduces

Abstract — The first part of the paper presents an
omnidirectional minirobot with conventional wheels. For each
one of the three sets of wheels, the minirobot uses a
synchronous transmission that allows a rotation of 360 degrees
around its vertical axis. Movement transmission from the DC
motors to the wheels is accomplished using gear mechanisms -
three for steering and three for movement. The control of the
minirobot can be done from a PC or by using a joystick. The
second part of the paper presents an autonomous
omnidirectional robot with three omnidirectional wheels that
uses three stepper motors for displacement.
positioning accuracy and increases power consumption and
tire wear. The fundamental cause of the scrubbing problem
is that the wheel generates larger frictional forces when
steered actively around a vertical axis than when it is rolling.
The scrubbing problem can be reduced using the dual wheel
design similar to that found in aircraft front landing gear.
Wheels in the dual wheel design are always rolling even
during steering.

Index Terms – minirobot, standard wheel, omnidirectional

wheel, mechanism, gear transmission.

I. INTRODUCTION
a) b)

T HE term “omnidirectional” is used to describe the

ability of a system to move instantaneously in any
direction from any configuration. Omnidirectional robotic
platforms have vast advantages over a conventional design Wheel parameters:
r = wheel radius
in terms of mobility in congested environments. They are v = wheel linear velocity
w = wheel angular velocity
capable of easily performing tasks in environments c)
t = steering velocity

congested with static and dynamic obstacles and narrow
aisles. These environments are commonly found in factory
workshops offices, warehouses, hospitals and elderly care
facilities. A large variety of omnidirectional robots are
presented in specialized literature, [1] - [4].
These robots can be divided in two categories: robots with
special wheels and robots with conventional wheels.
Usually, an omnidirectional robot has three or more of these
types of wheels.
The standard wheels are chosen because of their
simplicity and are available in all sizes and shapes. In figure
1 there are presented a few standard wheels.
Conventional wheels are inherently simple, have high load
capacity, and high tolerance to floor irregularities such as
bumps, cracks, dirt and debris. The most common designs
are those using steered wheels. Vehicles based on this design
have at least two active wheels, each of which has both
driving and steering actuators. They can move in any
direction from any configuration.
One major drawback of conventional wheels design is the
high friction and scrubbing during the steering as the wheel
Fig. 1. Standard wheels
a) Fixed wheel b) Centered orientable wheel
c) Off-centered orientable wheel (Castor wheel)
In contrast omnidirectional wheels are complex and hard
to procure. Omnidirectional wheels are wheels, that enable
perform robot's movement in all directions without
necessary turning around vertical robot's axis
An omnidirectional wheel is created by a hub, its
perimeter is surrounded by rolling segments - spherical
roller, cylindrical, conic or circular (fig. 2). Wheels are
divided according to orientation of rolling segments to the
wheel hub.
Fig. 2. Examples of omnidirectional wheels
a) Universal, b) Double Universal, c) Swedish 45°(Mecanum)

O. Tatar is Associate Professor within the Technical University of Cluj-
Napoca, Department of Mechanisms, Precision Engineering and
Mechatronics, B-dul Muncii 103-105, Cluj-Napoca, Romania, phone:
0264-401681; fax: 0264-415490; e-mail: olimpiut@yahoo.com.
D. Mandru is Professor at the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca,
Department of Mechanisms, Precision Engineering and Mechatronics, B-
dul Muncii 103-105, Cluj-Napoca, Romania, phone: 0264-401646; fax:
0264-415490; e-mail: mandrud@yahoo.com.
A. Mateiu is MSc student within the Technical University of Cluj-
Napoca, Romania, phone: +40-751-244-926; e-mail:
adrian_mateiu@yahoo.com
Most special wheel designs are based on a concept that
achieves traction in one direction and allow passive motion
in another. The Mecanum wheel is an example of the special
wheel design that has a number of small passive rollers
mounted on the periphery of a normal wheel. The axes of the
rollers are perpendicular to that of the wheel.
The design in figure 3 show a traditional Mecanum wheel
with the peripheral rollers held in place from the outside.

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 DESIGN OF OMNIDIRECTIONAL MINIROBOTS

a)

Fig. 3. The Mecanum wheel based on Ilon’s concept

The wheel is driven in a normal way, while the rollers
allow for free motion in the perpendicular direction. In [5]
other types of Mecanum type omnidirectional wheels are
presented.

Fig. 4. The Mecanum wheel with centrally mounted rollers b)

Fig. 7. a) Robot with four omnidirectional wheels (Robot Uranus)
Other omnidirectional wheels constructive solutions are b) Distribution of forces and velocity
presented in figure 5.

a)

Fig. 5. Other types of omnidirectional wheels

Segment rotation axis lies either in a plain perpendicular

to rotation axis of the hub, or they contain specific angle - b)
using it 3 and 4 wheeled robot (Fig. 6, Fig. 7, Fig. 8) [1], [3]. Fig. 8. a) Robot with four omnidirectional wheels
b) Arrangement of the wheels and distribution of forces

II. THE DEVELOPED OMINIDIRECTIONAL

MINIROBOTS
A. The first prototype

a) The omnidirectional minirobot that is presented in this

part has three pairs of conventional wheels. The transmission
from the D.C. motors to the robot's wheels is made using
geared mechanisms: three for steering and another three for
displacement. The control of the minirobot can be done from
a computer or using a joystick, [6].

Mechanical design

b) The minirobot has a platform placed on three supporting

elements. At the base of each supporting element there is a
Fig. 6. a) Robots with three omnidirectional wheels
pair of conventional wheels driven by a worm gear. Two
b) Arrangement of the wheels and distribution of forces
D.C. motors are placed on the platform: for driving and

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 DESIGN OF OMNIDIRECTIONAL MINIROBOTS

steering; the motors use geared systems composed of The following annotations are used in this scheme: nM1 –
cylindrical gears with straight teeth. The minirobot weights the motor’s maximum rpm (nM1 = 4750 rpm); nR – wheel
900 g, has a high of 200 mm, a width of 160 mm and the rpm, Z1 = 10; Z2 = 50; Z3 = 20; Z4 = 40; Z5 = 40; Z7 = 20
wheels have a radius of 45 mm. The 3D model of the – gear number of teeth, Z6 = 1 – worm gear number of
omnidirectional minirobot is presented in figure 9, [7]. threads.
Another three identical geared mechanisms are used for
steering.
.
3’ 4’ 5’

1’ nm2 2’

ME2
nax

Fig. 9. The 3D Solid Works model of the designed minirobot

A picture of the developed prototype is presented in figure
10.

Fig. 12. The structural scheme of a steering mechanism

The kinematic scheme of one of these mechanisms is

presented in figure 12. The following annotations are used in
this scheme: nM2 – the maximum rpm of the steering motor
(nM2 = 4750 rpm); nad – steering axle rpm; Z’1 = 10; Z’2 =
50; Z’3 = 10; Z’4 = 30; Z’5 = 50; gear number of teeth.
The three wheeled synchronic drive principle has some
benefits with respect to other wheel configurations, in this
application. The main benefits are:
- only two motors are necessary; one motor rotates all
wheels together to produce motion, the other motor turns all
Fig. 10. The picture of the omnidirectional minirobot - first prototype wheels to change direction;
For driving, the minirobot has in its structure three - no suspension needed; the three wheel configuration
identical geared mechanisms. The kinematic scheme of one ensures the ground contact of each wheel;
of these mechanisms is presented in figure 11. - the mechanical guarantee of straight line motion;
- the robot can move to a certain position, and rotate in
place to achieve a certain orientation;
ME1 - possibility of symmetric design.
The main disadvantages are:
nm1 - complex mechanism which permits all wheels to be
5 4
2 1 driven by one motor and turned by another motor.
3
- wheel alignment has to be precisely set to guarantee
straight line motion.

Driving and control of the minirobot

The driving of the minirobot’s mechanisms can be

achieved using two 12 V IGARASHI, model N 2738-125
nR 6
(244475) DC motors (fig. 13).
7

Fig. 11. The structural scheme of a drive mechanism

Fig. 13. The Igarashi DC actuator

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 DESIGN OF OMNIDIRECTIONAL MINIROBOTS

TABLE 1: CHARACTERISTICS OF THE ACTUATORS

Model: N 2738-125
Nominal voltage: 12 V/DC
Maximum current: 0.35 A
No-load speed: 5800 rpm
Nominal speed: 4750 rpm
Power: 2.5 W
Torque: 5 Nmm
Weight: 66 g
The minirobot’s DC motors can be controlled from a PC
or using a joystick. For making the control circuit of the
minirobot an ATMega8535 microcontroller and a serial
interface MAX232 were used. Figure 14 shows the
connecting scheme of the MAX232 circuit to the
microcontroller and the PC.
For the control of the DC motors a specialized L293E Fig. 14 The connecting scheme of the MAX232 circuit to the microcontroller
circuit is used. This circuit can control the motors using two and the PC
integrated H bridges. The Two H Bridges in the L293E Every channel is controlled by TTL compatible logical
circuit can constantly supply 600 mA on the channel and inputs. The connecting scheme of the L293E circuit to the
approximately 1 A in impulse regime. microcontroller is presented in figure 15.

Fig. 15 Connecting the L293E circuit to the microcontroller

For the manual control of the minirobot we can use a
joystick (Fig. 16) that is connected to the same
microcontroller acquisition board. The switch between PC
and manual control is made automatically when the joystick
is disconnected from the control unit. The joystick has 6
relays that disconnect the 6 wires of the L293E circuit and
power the DC motors trough the microcontroller.
The minirobot uses a Canyon CN-WlutAM21 (Fig. 17)
video camera that has the following features: - sensor
resolution: 0.1 Mpixels; - image sensor technology: CMOS;
- maximum image resolution: 640x480; - maximum rate of
frame caption: 15 fps; - interface: USB.

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 DESIGN OF OMNIDIRECTIONAL MINIROBOTS

Fig. 16. The Atari joystick Fig. 17. The Canyon camera

The scheme of the control system used for the minirobot

is presented in figure 18 and a picture of this system is given
in figure 19 [8].

Fig. 19. The control system photography

Fig. 18. Control system scheme

B. The second prototype

The omnidirectional minirobot presented in this part has

three omnidirectional wheels and it is energetically
autonomous [9].
The minirobot weight is 1450 g, and the wheels have a
radius of 55 mm.
Figure 20 presents the omnidirectional wheel used by the
robot. The wheel is made of aluminum and its exterior is
covered with rubber rollers placed perpendicularly on the Fig. 20. The Omnidirectional wheel in the structure
wheel's rotation axis. of the second prototype

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 DESIGN OF OMNIDIRECTIONAL MINIROBOTS

In figure 21 we have the 3D model of the minirobot and in

the figure 22 a photo of the minirobot is presented.

Fig. 22. The omnidirectional minirobot with three omnidirectional wheels

(photo of the minirobot)
Fig. 21. The 3D model of the omnidirectional minirobot

The minirobot has two hexagonal platforms on which the

motors that drive the wheels and the control system are
placed. For the actuation of the wheels three stepper motors
were used EPSON – model EM-234 (Fig. 23) placed at 120°
one from another, controlled by a microcontroller ATMega
8535.
The sketch of the motherboard, that contains the
ATMEGA8535 microcontroller and the MAX232N Fig. 23 The EPSON EM-234 motor
integrated circuit, is presented in figure 24. (Stepper motor for EPSON 4-Wire Two 9-Ohm Coils on ribbon cable -
1.65inch/42mm Diameter – 24 mm )

Fig. 24. The motherboard sketch

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 DESIGN OF OMNIDIRECTIONAL MINIROBOTS

The additional circuit used for the control of the motors is

presented in figure 25.

Fig. 25. The auxiliary circuit sketch

Fig. 26. The photo of the motherboard and auxiliary circuit

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III. CONCLUSION
This paper presents an omnidirectional minirobot with
conventional wheels that uses a synchronous geared
transmission and an omnidirectional robot with
omnidirectional wheels.
The first minirobot is not energetically autonomous, being
supplied from a voltage source. The robot’s autonomy can
be increased by eliminating the wires used for powering, and
replacing them with accumulators.
The second minirobot prototype is energetically
autonomous.
This kind of minirobots has the advantage of being able to
move in any direction with a high positioning precision.
This minirobots can be used in both educational and
research purposes.

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