Modes of Motion as an Alternative Approach for Mobile Robot Kinematic Constraint Representation

Abstract

This paper presents original concepts to represent and deal with kinematic constraints imposed on mobile robots. This is based on formulations derived originally for the dynamics of multibody systems and applied to robotic manipulator arms. This representation has several advantages such as its ability to deal with kinematically excited modes, derive a physically meaningful state-space representation, and find corresponding constraining forces. The paper shows how to apply these concepts to different types of mobile robots such as those modelled as unicycle or bicycle.