Introduction to

Controls & Robotics

Mobile Robots: Kinematics

References
Introduction

to Autonomous Mobile Robots

by Roland Siegwart and Illah R. Nourbakhsh

Mobile Robot Kinematics

In

kinematics we study of how mechanical

systems behave
We need to understand the mechanical
behaviour of robots in order to:

Design appropriate robots for the tasks

To understand how to create control software for
the robot hardware

Representing Robot Position

The

axes XI and YI
define an arbitrary
initial basis on the
plane as the global
reference frame from
some origin O: {XI,YI}

YI
YR
X

P
X

Representing Robot Position

(cont)
To

specify the position of Y I

the robot, choose a point
P on the robot chassis as
its position reference
point
The basis {XR, YR} defines
two axes relative to P on
the robots chassis and is
thus the robots local
reference frame

YR
X

P
X

Representing Robot Position

(cont)
Y
I

The

position of P in the
global reference frame
is specified by
coordinates x and y,
and the angular
difference between the
global and local
reference frame is
given by

YR
X

P
X

Representing Robot Position

(cont)
YI

We can describe the

pose of the robot as a
vector with these three
elements:
x
I y

YR
X

P
X

Representing Robot Position

(cont)
YI
To

describe robot
motion in terms of
component motions, it
is necessary to map
motion along the axes
of the global reference
frame to motion along
the axes of the robots
local reference frame

YR
X

P
X

Representing Robot Position

Representing

a robot within an arbitrary initial

frame

Initial frame: {XI, YI}

Robot frame: {XR, YR}

x
Robot position: I = y

YI
YR
X

Mapping between the two frames:

x
R R I R y

XI

cos sin 0

whereR sin
cos

0
0
1

Representing Robot Position

(cont)

This mapping is
accomplished using the
orthogonal rotation
matrix:

YI
YR

cos sin 0
R sin cos 0
0
0
1

This matrix can be used

to map motion in the
global reference frame
{XI, YI} to motion in terms
of the local reference
frame {XR, YR}

P
X

Representing Robot Position

(cont)
YI
This

operation is
denoted by R( ) I
because the
computation of this
operation depends on
the value of :
R = R(/2) I

YR
X

P
X

Representing Robot Position

(cont)
For

example, consider
the robot in the figure
right
Because =/2 we can
easily compute the
rotation matrix R:
cos sin 0
R sin cos 0
0
0
1

R
2

0 1 0
1 0 0
0 0 1

R = R(/2) I

Representing Robot Position

(cont)

Given some velocity

x , y , in the global
reference frame we can
compute the
components of motion
along this robots local
axes XR and YR

Representing Robot Position

(cont)
In

this case, due to the

specific angle of the
robot, motion along XR
is equal to y and
motion along YR is -x

0 1 0 x

R R I 1 0 0 y
2
0 0 1

Forward Kinematic Models

The

yI

forward kinematic
v(t)
model of a differentials(t)
drive robot is relatively

straight-forward
The differential drive robot
has two wheels each of
diameter r
Given a point P centred between the two drive
wheels, each wheel is a distance l from P

xI

Forward Kinematic Models

(cont)
Given

r, l, and the spinning speed of each

wheel, 1 and 2 a forward kinematic model
would predict the robots overall speed in the
global reference frame as:

I y f l , r, , 1, 2