Kinematics of Two-Roller-Driven Ball for RoboCup Soccer Robot

Abstract

RoboCup is a competition designed to promote the research related to Artificial Intelligence (AI). We have also organized a RoboCup soccer team "Hibikino-Musashi" and work on one of AI research topics, co-operated behavior control system using multiple autonomous mobile robots. In order to realize co-operated behavior in the soccer game, the research of ball handling system is one of the important issues capable of dribbling with a ball and passing the ball to teammate robots. In this paper, the kinematics of a two-roller-drive ball controller, which are attached in front of the soccer robot and designed to have friction on the upper side of the ball, is proposed. The forward and inverse kinematics between the ball-motion and two active rollers are derived, and the ball control mechanism has been developed and evaluated based on the results of simulations and experiments.

Implementation of Feedforward and Feedback Control for Active Handling and Dribbling System in MSL Robot Soccer

“…Chikushi, Weerakoon, Ishii, and Sonoda have claimed that contact between the ball and dribbler is very influential on the movement system of the robot. The dribbler wheel must have a very high angular velocity, so the ball can be stuck at a distance that the dribbler can reach [7]. There are several examples of dribbler concepts applied in RoboCup that have recorded by Junkai, Chenggang, Junhao, Kaihong and Huimin, although the number of wheels and concepts applied is almost the same.…”

Evaluation of the Roller Arrangements for the Ball-Dribbling Mechanisms Adopted by RoboCup Teams

“…Figure 1 shows the rotational axis, ball velocity, and roller velocity in reverse motion of a dual-roller arrangement. The RV-Infinity [11] roller arrangement in Table 1 involves no slip (see Figure 1a) because the roller velocity corresponds to the ball velocity; i.e., the rollers' rotational axes are aligned on a plane that includes the origin of the ball's sphere [12,13]. In another approach, CAMBADA [14] avoids slippage through the use of unconstrained rollers (omni-rollers).…”