A simple drive load-balancing technique for multi-wheeled planetary rovers

James C. Finnis*, Mark Neal

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference Proceeding (Non-Journal item)

Abstract

A simple method for balancing the motor driver load across a six-wheeled rover is presented. This method uses the concept of inflammation to model the load on each motor driver by its temperature, decreasing the load as the local temperature increases. The method is compared with both the base case, where all motors run at a fixed load; and a relatively unintelligent method involving shutting off all motors while the temperature is above a given level. We show that load balancing in this manner has the beneficial effect of avoiding overheating in individual motors, while neither overly decreasing the traversed distance nor increasing the energy used.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationTowards Autonomous Robotic Systems - 14th Annual Conference, TAROS 2013, Revised Selected Papers
EditorsAshutosh Natraj, Stephen Cameron, Chris Melhuish, Mark Witkowski
PublisherSpringer Nature
Pages247-258
Number of pages12
ISBN (Print)9783662436448, 3662436442
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 15 Jul 2014
Event14th Annual Conference on Towards Autonomous Robotic Systems, TAROS 2013 - Oxford, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Duration: 28 Aug 201330 Aug 2013

Publication series

NameLecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
Volume8069 LNAI
ISSN (Print)0302-9743
ISSN (Electronic)1611-3349

Conference

Conference14th Annual Conference on Towards Autonomous Robotic Systems, TAROS 2013
Country/TerritoryUnited Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
CityOxford
Period28 Aug 201330 Aug 2013

Keywords

  • Inflammation
  • Load balancing
  • PID
  • Robot
  • Rover
  • Temperature

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