Design and control of a variable footprint mechanism for holonomic omnidirectional vehicles and its application to wheelchairs

A reconfigurable mechanism for varying the footprint of a four-wheeled omni directional vehicle is developed and applied to wheelchairs. The variable f ootprint mechanism consists of a pair of beams intersecting at a pivotal po int in the middle. Two pairs of ball wheels at the diagonal positions of th e vehicle chassis are mounted, respectively, on the two beams intersecting in the middle. The angle between the two beams varies actively so that the ratio of the wheel base to the tread mag change. Four independent servo mot ors driving the four ball wheels allow the vehicle to move in an arbitrary direction from an arbitrary configuration as well as to change the angle be tween the two beams and thereby change the footprint. The objective of cont rolling the beam angle is threefold. One is to augment static stability by varying the footprint so that the mass centroid of the vehicle may be kept within the footprint at ail times. The second is to reduce the width of the vehicle when going through a narrow doorway. The third is to apparently ch ange the gear ratio relating the vehicle speed to individual actuator speed s. First the concept of the varying footprint mechanism is described, and i ts kinematic behavior is analyzed, followed by the three control algorithms for varying the footprint. A prototype vehicle for an application as a whe elchair platform is designed, built, and tested.