On supervisory control of mobile platform on four swivel wheels

A mobile robotic platform with four driving swivel wheels, whose centers are situated at the vertices of a rectangle, is considered. Each of the wheels can rotate about its horizontal axis in a common way, and the plane of the wheel situated in a fork can turn with respect to the platform about the perpendicular axis. These turns and rotations of four wheels are performed using eight drives. The platform can move, perform translational and rotational motion without wheel slip if and only if the fork orientation and wheel angular velocities satisfy certain relations. This study presents the relations to which program values of fork turning angles and wheel angular velocities calculated for automatic control of the platform motion or operator control should satisfy. The scheme of supervisory (with an operator) control of the platform motion and its virtual analogue are described.