Transport of load in production and logistics is usually done with bigger mobile
robots that are not always the most suited for infrastructure. They are heavy,
slow, and require lots of space even when not transporting anything. This mas-
ter’s thesis presents the algorithm for transportation of load with multiple smaller
mobile robots that share the load. Smaller robots are lighter, faster, and require
less space. If needed they can more effectively transport smaller loads. In the
case of bigger load robots use special gripper to attach themselves to the wheels
of the transport cart and transfer some weight to themselves.
A centralized algorithm was developed that is capable of controlling any num-
ber of differential drive robots with the aim of transporting a load between points.
The algorithm consists of three parts: a system for calculating kinematics of load
transport, a system for determining the orientation of the robots with respect to
load and robots control system. The orientation of robots with respect to load is
calculated based on three methods that use the global pose of the robots, odom-
etry of the robots and kinematic model, and visual markers. For path searching
A* algorithm is used and for path following Trajectory Rollout algorithm is used.
The algorithm is used to transform control orders for the load to controls for
individual robots. The implementation of the algorithm is based on ROS (Robot
Operating System) environment.
The algorithm was developed and evaluated in Gazebo simulation environ-
ment. It was then transferred and evaluated on a real system - on the mobile
robot from company Epilog d.o.o. Open and closed-loop control experiments were
done in simulation and on the real system. The proper working of the algorithm
was determined using three indicators. First indicator in comparison of desired
versus real velocity of the load. The second one is the forces between robots and
the load. The third is sideways sliding of the robots. The algorithm worked in all
simulated and real experiments which meant that the load was moving according
to the commands without sideways sliding and without too big forces.
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