Kinematic parameter calibration of two-wheeled robot

The kinematic parameters of the two-wheeled robot has a great influence on the robot localization and path planning. Since there exist robot systematic errors caused by unequal wheel diameter and uncertainty about the effective wheelbase, it is difficult to acquire the exact kinematic parameters. In order to reduce the errors, researchers introduced the UMBmark to make calibration of robot kinematic parameters. However, the previous studies assume that the two factors influence the robot localization independently, which is not the case in fact. This paper put forward an improved kinematic parameters calibration method based on the UMBmark. Let the robot walk along a straight path and an equilateral triangle path respectively and we can calibrate kinematic parameters by measuring the actual position errors. Then the optimal length of the straight path was given out, and it is proved that the equilateral triangle path has better adaptability than the square path has. Physical experiment has been carried out, and the result verified the effectiveness of the proposed method.