PI(t)D(t) Control and Motion Profiling for Omnidirectional Mobile Robots
This addresses a foundational barrier to the proliferation of human-servicing applications like delivery in hospitals or hotels, though it appears incremental as it builds on existing control methods.
The research tackled the problem of slow and inefficient motion in autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) by developing a motion control architecture with a novel PI(t)D(t) controller and motion-profiling, resulting in potential for faster and more efficient AMRs while maintaining high accuracy and repeatability.
Recently, a trend is emerging toward human-servicing autonomous mobile robots, with diverse applications including delivery of supplies in hospitals, hotels, or labs where personnel are scarce, or reacting to indoor emergencies. However, existing autonomous mobile robot (AMR) motion is slow and inefficient, a foundational barrier to proliferation of human-servicing applications. This research has developed a motion control architecture that demonstrates the potential of several algorithms for increasing speed and efficiency. These include a novel PI(t)D(t) controller that sets integral and derivative gains as functions of time, and motion-profiling applied for holonomic motion. Resulting performance indicates potential for faster, more efficient AMRs, that maintain high levels of accuracy and repeatability. The hope is that this research can serve as a proof of concept for faster motion-control, to remove a key barrier to further use of human-servicing mobile robots.