Parking Control of Mixed Conventional/Braking Actuation Mobile Robots Using Fuzzy Logic Control

In this paper a new mobile robot system, the mixed conventional/braking actuation mobile robot (MAMR), is introduced. Various actuation systems exist for mobile robots such as differential drive with motor-driven wheels, legged mechanisms, and others. The common characteristics of all those actuation systems is the use of conventional motors to move each degree of freedom. Robots with such actuation systems are generally complex, heavy, and expensive. This paper uses brakes in combination with conventional actuators to tackle those drawbacks. In this study, some of the conventional actuators are replaced by brakes resulting a new mobile robot platform. Two states of brakes (i.e. ON/OFF) which are obtained by assuming Coulomb friction at the brake are considered. This paper discusses the dynamics and parking control of such a robot using a fuzzy logic controller. Several Matlab/Simulink simulations with different initial conditions are done to show the effectiveness of the proposed controller.