Analysis and experimental kinematics of a skid-steering wheeled robot based on a laser scanner sensor

Skid-steering mobile robots are widely used because of their simple mechanism and robustness. However, due to the complex wheel-ground interactions and the kinematic constraints, it is a challenge to understand the kinematics and dynamics of such a robotic platform. In this paper, we develop an analysis and experimental kinematic scheme for a skid-steering wheeled vehicle based-on a laser scanner sensor. The kinematics model is established based on the boundedness of the instantaneous centers of rotation (ICR) of treads on the 2D motion plane. The kinematic parameters (the ICR coefficient/χ, the path curvature variable χ and robot speed v), including the effect of vehicle dynamics, are introduced to describe the kinematics model. Then, an exact but costly dynamic model is used and the simulation of this model’s stationary response for the vehicle shows a qualitative relationship for the specified parameters χ and λ. Moreover, the parameters of the kinematic model are determined based-on a laser scanner localization experimental analysis method with a skid-steering robotic platform, Pioneer P3-AT. The relationship between the ICR coefficient χ and two physical factors is studied, i.e., the radius of the path curvature λ and the robot speed v. An empirical function-based relationship between the ICR coefficient of the robot and the path parameters is derived. To validate the obtained results, it is empirically demonstrated that the proposed kinematics model significantly improves the dead-reckoning performance of this skid-steering robot.