ROS Programming: Building Powerful Robots

Computing motor torque

Let's calculate the torque required to move this robot.

The number of wheels is four, including two caster wheels. The number of wheels undergoing actuation is only two. We can assume the coefficient of friction is 0.6 and of wheel radius is 4.5 cm. We can use the following formula:

Total weight of robot = Weight of robot + Payload

Weight of the robot: 3 x 9.8 ≈ 30 N (W = mg)

Payload: 2 x 9.8 ≈ 20 N

Total weight: 30 + 20 = 50 N

This total weight should be split among the four wheels of the robot, so we can write it as W = 2 x N1 + 2 x N2, where N1 is the weight acting on each robot wheel and N2 is the weight acting on each caster wheels. The configuration of wheels of the robot is shown in Figure 1. The C1 and C2 shows ...