Effect of Incremental Driving Motion on a Vision-Based Path Planning of a Spherical Robot

Path planning of spherical robots is usually carried out based on a continuous motion. However, actuators such as stepping motors are driven by discrete input signals that generate motion in rotational steps. The results would therefore be different from the continuous path planned for the spherical robot. The spherical robot under study incorporates two stepping motors, which generate the rotation increments. This incremental rotation inputs cause error and deviate the robot from the desired path. The result of such discretization of actuating input is studied here. The robot path is simulated using the inverse kinematics relations. As the angular steps decrease with better resolution of motors, the motion approaches the path expected for continuous motion.