SIMULATION FOR DESIGN OF 3D PRINTED OMNI DIRECTIONAL ROBOT

Abstract

Omni-directional mobile robots are capable of moving forward, backward, sideways, and diagonally without changing their orientation. This capability makes them suitable for material handling, warehouse automation, service robotics, laboratory automation, and intelligent transportation systems. This paper presents the design and simulation of a 3D-printed omni-directional mobile robot using omni wheels. The proposed robot consists of a lightweight 3Dprinted chassis, four omni wheels, four geared DC motors, motor drivers, a microcontroller, and a rechargeable battery. A CAD model of the robot is developed and evaluated before fabrication. The kinematic model of the four-wheel omni-directional platform is derived to establish the relationship between robot velocity and individual wheel velocities. The design is then implemented in a simulation environment to investigate translational and rotational motion. Different motion commands, including forward, lateral, diagonal, circular, and rotational movement, are simulated. Representative simulation results demonstrate that the robot can achieve independent motion in the X and Y directions while simultaneously controlling its angular velocity. For the selected model, the simulated robot achieved a maximum translational velocity of approximately 0.50 m/s and demonstrated satisfactory trajectory tracking with a representative maximum position error of approximately 0.025 m. The study demonstrates the feasibility of combining additive manufacturing with omni-directional robot design and provides a foundation for future fabrication and experimental validation.