Configuration Design and Control Methods of Distributed Driving-Steering Multi-body Articulated Mobile Robot

The articulated mobile robot platform has the advantages of large carrying capacity and flexible module combinations, but it faces prominent issues such as poor trafficability and internal stability, which limit the transport scenarios and efficiency. A multi-body articulated mobile robot platform equipped with distributed driving and steering devices and its control methods are designed. Firstly, a distributed steering and driving deployment scheme for full-trailer with front axle driving and rear axle steering is proposed based on the recursive kinematic and dynamic characteristics of the multi-body articulated platform. Secondly, a modular feedback control algorithm based on kinematic deduction and coordinate transformation for trailer rear-wheel steering is designed to address the poor trafficability resulting from the large turning swept area of the multi-body articulated platform, which achieves the same path following of articulated platform. For the poor internal stability in the multi-body articulated platform, a distributed drive control method based on the fusion of feedforward and feedback is designed, which achieves the coordinated stable operation of the articulated platform in high-speed steering,braking, and other potentially unstable conditions. Finally, simulations and physical experiments on a four-body articulated mobile robot platform are carried out. The experiments show that the distributed rear-wheel steering reduces the maximum trajectory deviation of the trailer from the towing vehicle by approximately 93%. Coordinated drive control increases the maximum stable driving speed of the platform from 8 m/s to 14 m/s at a steering angle of 0.1 rad, and improves the linear braking deceleration from -1 m/s² to -4 m/s².