Zero Scrub, Large Contact Area, Three-Degree-of-Freedom Holonomic Vehicles for Mobile Robotics Applications

Large contact area, zero scrub, three-degree-of-freedom holonomic vehicles ("LCA" "ZS-3" vehicles) are proposed for use in mobile robotics applications. ZS-3 vehicles avoid any rotational degree of freedom about a surface-normal axis between respective paired vehicle-ground contacting surfaces, resulting in nominally zero scrub at the surface contact plane. We briefly survey various firms of LCA ZS-3 vehicles and explore types utilizing arrayed omniwheels in more detail. Kinematic analysis shows these vehicles are holonomic-in the strict sense of having fully integrable velocity transforms-in all three degrees of freedom of motion in the plane, providing algebraic odometry and path-independent positioning analogous to fixed-base manipulators. We further propose ZS-3 vehicles as an additional category, and degree of holonomic mobility as an additional index of classification, of wheeled mobile robots and of vehicles generally. We explore torque balancing for a specific configuration.