Minimum-energy trajectory planning and control on a straight line with rotation for three-wheeled omni-directional mobile robots

The minimum-energy trajectory planning and control algorithm on a straight line with rotation is proposed for battery-powered three-wheeled omni-directional mobile robots (TOMRs). In order to lengthen the operation time of a mobile robot with carried batteries, we have chosen a practical cost function as the energy from the batteries to actuation motors. The optimal control theory using a Hamiltonian function is used to solve the minimum-energy trajectory, which gives the rotational velocity profile in analytic form and the translational velocity profile by numerical method. We also establish search algorithm to find the minimum-energy trajectory. These minimum-energy velocity trajectories are compared to the conventional trapezoidal velocity profiles via simulation to analyze actuation energy consumption, which reveal energy savings up to 4.76 %. Also a trajectory following control system is implemented to validate the actual performance.