An Onboard and Simple to Use Trajectory Programming Odometry System for Work Floor Mobile Robots

Mobile robot applications are widely spreading and are expected to gain more ground, especially in production facilities and warehouses. They employ different techniques to initially define or decide their trajectories and then follow it. The outdoor robots employ trajectories based on radio-navigation systems, such as GPS, while indoor robots employ computer-generated trajectories. This study aims to introduce an onboard simple-to-use, yet efficient, odometry-based trajectory programming system for work floor mobile robots, which could be used by unskilled workers. The proposed system employs two indexed wheels fitted to the robot’s non-steered robot wheels. The robot’s trajectory is programmed by manually driving the robot or trailing it by a vehicle, on its required trajectory. The resulting signals from the indexed wheels are recorded by a control unit and used to construct the necessary robot’s trajectory, using a specially formulated algorithm. The same indexed wheels could be further employed to facilitate the robot’s awareness of its location, position, speed, and acceleration to facilitate its trajectory following process. The system performance was evaluated using a specially written simulation program. The simulation results show that the trajectory programming system is able to capture and construct the robot’s required trajectories with considerable accuracy. It also pointed out the parameters that govern its accuracy such as the resolution of the indexed wheels and the robot’s wheels track (robot’s width). The proposed trajectory programming system was found suitable for facilitating the wider adoption of mobile robots’ services.