Systematic Isotropy Analysis of Caster Wheeled Mobile Robot with Steering Link Offset Different from Wheel Radius

This paper presents the systematic isotropy analysis of a fully actuated caster wheeled omnidirectional mobile robot (COMR) with the steering link offset different from the wheel radius, which can be considered as the generalization of the previous analysis. First with the characteristic length introduced, the kinematic model of a COMR is obtained based on the orthogonal decomposition of the wheel velocities. Second, the necessary and sufficient conditions for the isotropy of a COMR are derived and examined to categorize there different groups, each of which can be dealt with in a similar way. Third, for each group, the isotropy conditions are further explored so as to identify four different sets of all possible isotropic configurations. Fourth, for each set the expressions of the isotropic characteristic length required for the isotropy of a COMR are elaborated.