ROLLMOBS, a new drive system for omnimobile robots

Typical mobile robot structures (e.g. wheelchairs or car-like robots) do not have the required mobility for common applications such as displacement in an office, hospital, workshop, etc. New structures based on the “universal wheel” (i.e. a wheel equipped with freely rotating rollers) have been developed to increase mobility. However, these structures have important drawbacks such as spurious vibrations and limited load capacity. This paper presents a new type of omnimobile platform using an original combination of spherical wheel and universal wheel. This structure will improve the robot capabilities, i.e., load capacity and surmountable bumps.