Practical Model for Energy Consumption Analysis of Omnidirectional Mobile Robot

Sensors (Basel). 2021 Mar 5;21(5):1800. doi: 10.3390/s21051800.

Abstract

The four-wheeled Mecanum robot is widely used in various industries due to its maneuverability and strong load capacity, which is suitable for performing precise transportation tasks in a narrow environment. While the Mecanum wheel robot has mobility, it also consumes more energy than ordinary robots. The power consumed by the Mecanum wheel mobile robot varies enormously depending on their operating regimes and environments. Therefore, only knowing the working environment of the robot and the accurate power consumption model can we accurately predict the power consumption of the robot. In order to increase the applicable scenarios of energy consumption modeling for Mecanum wheel robots and improve the accuracy of energy consumption modeling, this paper focuses on various factors that affect the energy consumption of the Mecanum wheel robot, such as motor temperature, terrain, the center of gravity position, etc. The model is derived from the kinematic and kinetic model combined with electrical engineering and energy flow principles. The model has been simulated in MATLAB and experimentally validated with the four-wheeled Mecanum robot platform in our lab. Experimental results show that the accuracy of the model reached 95%. The results of energy consumption modeling can help robots save energy by helping them to perform rational path planning and task planning.

Keywords: Mecanum mobile robots; complex environment; energy measurements; energy modeling; minimum-energy control.