Robotics Locomotion - Basics
Locomotion is the movement from place to place. Although this definition is quite simple, and in nature this is easily achieved, in the robotics field this is a big problem and is a very important line of research in current academia.
In nature, the most common system used is legs, but in robotics this is a problem because of:
- The amount of Degrees of Freedom is high, making it more difficult to control the robot. 20210516203846
- Need to maintain stability in the robot.
Although there is some research and work done using 4 or 6 legs, which is the easier way to add legs to a robot, it is more common to find robots that use wheels to move.
Wheels and steering
Wheels are more common because they remove the problem of maintaining stability and because they are more simple. The usual way to control these wheels are by using either differential drive or differential steer.
In differential drive, each wheel has an independent motor. I contrast, in differential steer wheels are attach to a single motor, but they can rotate at a different rate by using gears.
Path vs Getting to a place
Path planing is a very demanding computational problem that has many variables to take in consideration: where the robot is located, where it needs to go, how is the world, is there any obstacle, is there a shorter path… This complex problem is in itself another line of research.
In contrast, sometime there is no need to make a path to a certain place. We can let the robot move in the world until it arrives to the desired position. This is called navigation. 20210714190242
Notes References
20210514183815 INDEX - Robotics
20210514185045 Robotic Effectors and Actuators - Basics
20210516203846 Robotics Degrees of Freedom - Basics
20210714190242 Robotics Basics - Navigation