Development of a dual-mode mobile robot system for practical applications

This paper addresses a Coaxial Couple Wheeled Robot platform with a dual-mode for practical applications both as a personal transporter and a robot patrolman. This CCWR has two modes: the patrol mode as CCWR-P and the transporter mode as CCWR-T. In order to achieve fast switching between the two modes, modular design approach is adopted, and mechanism as well as the designed controller are developed and demonstrated. The system is divided into four separate parts, and independent functional modules can be quickly assembled for different target applications. Integration hardware is focused here, as well as the implementation of the controllers. For the robot control, a compact states feedback controller is proposed in this paper, and then the robot can track the desired inputs. Finally, the running experiments indoor and outdoor proved that the robot platform can move smoothly with the two modes and furthermore the robot can execute the tasks of transporting and patrol.