Omnidirectional robotic platform : the control of an omnidirectional robotic platform for use in robot soccer

The University of Cape Town competes in a national robot soccer competition. Teams of five small robots compete in the game of soccer without any human intervention. The robots are controlled by the artificial intelligence on a host computer connected to an overhead imaging system. The host computer controls the robots by sending them instructions via wireless communications. The robot soccer platform calls for the integration of electronic, mechanical and computer technologies and provides an exciting area for research. UCT first competed in the robot soccer competition in 2003, using differential drive robots designed by Graeme McPhillips. Research has shown that in the international robot soccer competition, teams are replacing their differential drive robots with omnidirectional robots – robots which can move in any direction without first changing their orientation to face the direction of motion. These robots have proved to be highly manoeuvrable and the winning teams in the small robot league are consistently those that use omnidirectional robots. In 2004, Craig Inman-Bamber designed and implemented UCT’s first omnidirectional robot platform. It is this platform that this dissertation is concerned with controlling. Electronic components were designed and implemented and software code written to control the robot in an omnidirectional manner.

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Year dc:date.issued

2008

Author dc:creator

• Levesque, Sally-Ann

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• McPhillips, Graeme
• Marais, Stephen
• Reed, Brandon

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11427/5518

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/5518