Design and Motion Control Strategies for an Omniwheel System

Space debris mitigation is a pivotal endeavor essential for sustaining human space exploration. To address the challenges posed by irregularly shaped, variably sized, and dynamically unpredictable debris in orbit, this paper proposes a mechanical design and motion control strategy for an omniwheel-based driving system. The mechanical architecture and kinematic principles of the system are elaborated in detail, complemented by the formulation of tailored motion control algorithms. First, the fundamental architecture of the driving subsystem is introduced, and the linear mapping between the uniformly distributed triad of omniwheels and the spherical drive is derived. Building upon this foundation, the kinematic transmission from the three evenly spaced driving subsystems to the contact sphere is established. This leads to the derivation of the overall linear mapping relationship between the nine uniformly distributed omniwheels and the contact sphere’s motion, thereby enabling precise trajectory tracking of the contact sphere via omniwheel actuation. Finally, comprehensive experimental validation was conducted in two phases. The first phase evaluated the fidelity and stability of the driving subsystem’s simulation model, as well as the accuracy of the kinematic mapping. Results demonstrate that the simulation model is highly stable and reliable. Under identical desired trajectories, the Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) between theoretical calculations and simulations was 4.082 × 10−4, while the RMSE between theory and physical prototypes was 0.0032. These results confirm that the motion errors remain within acceptable tolerances and the kinematic mapping is accurate. For the spherical end-effector, under the same trajectory conditions, the RMSE values among theoretical calculations, simulations, and physical prototypes were 0.0929 and 1.62, respectively. These findings validate the derived linear kinematic mapping, demonstrating its efficacy in precise motion control, which lays the foundation for future on-orbit detumbling tasks.