INTRODUCTION TO
MOBILE ROBOTICS
Prof. Dario Guastella
A.Y. 2025 - 2026
Mobile robotics
Robotic manipulators suffer from a fundamental
disadvantage: lack of mobility. A fixed
manipulator has a limited range of motion,
whereas a mobile platform has (virtually) an
unlimited operating space
A wide spectrum of applications: service,
industrial and agricultural robotics, planetary
explorations, to name a few
Mobile robots can be broadly classified into:
– aerial robots
– marine robots
– ground robots
– climbing robots
Aerial vehicles
Sometimes referred to as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs)
They can be in turn classified into
– Fixed wings
– Single- and multi-rotor
– Blimps
– Bio-inspired (insect- or bird-like)
Aerial vehicles - Quadrotors
The most common multirotor platform is the quadrotor, which consists of four
individual rotors attached to a rigid cross airframe
As shown in the figure, rotor i rotates anticlockwise (positive about the z axis)
if i is even and clockwise if i is odd
Control of a quadrotor is achieved by differential control of the thrust
generated by each rotor
Quadrotors control intuition
Pitch, roll, and heave (total thrust) control is straightforward to
conceptualize
Yaw control is obtained by adjusting the average speed of the clockwise
and anticlockwise rotating rotors
The system is underactuated and the remaining degrees of freedom
corresponding to the translational velocity in the x-y plane must be
controlled through the system dynamics
Multirotors - pros
High maneuverability, thus enabling safe and low-cost
experimentation in mapping, navigation, and control
algorithms in three dimensions
Possibility to hover in place and take off and land vertically,
unlike their fixed-wing counterparts
Simple modeling and control (for normal applications)
The multirotor design is easy to build and is quite robust
Multirotors - cons
Energy inefficiency compared to fixed-wing UAVs: while
fixed wing UAVs are able to exploit the lift generated by
the structure of their wings, rotorcraft such as quadrotors
must produce all of the energy they need to fly via their
rotors
Flight times of less than 30 min: because of limits on
battery energy density and specific power (battery
typically represents close to 30% of total mass)
Limited power available for onboard payload: sensors
such as LiDARs are heavy and power hungry
Marine and climbing robots
Marine vehicles
– Underwater
» Autonomous Underwater
Vehicles (AUV)
» Remotely Operated vehicles
(ROV)
– Unmanned Surface Vessels
(USV)
Climbing robots
– vacuum
adhesion
– electrostatic
adhesion
– magnetic
adhesion
Ground robots
Usually referred to as Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs)
Ground robots were the first type of mobile robots to be
developed
Electromechanical tortoise
by W. Grey Walter (1949)
Depending on the locomotion, they can be classified into:
– Wheeled – Hybrid
– Tracked – Worm/snake-like robots
– Legged
Wheeled robots
– Number of wheels static stability - Wheel type
Standard Castor Swedish Spherical
or mecanum
wheels
Wheeled robots
Omnidirectional platform example
Kuka YouBot
45° omniwheel
[Link]
Wheeled robots
– Wheel configuration:
» Ackermann steering
» Differential drive
» Tricycle/Steer drive
» Omnidirectional drive
Tricycle/Steer drive
Differential drive
Ackermann steering
Wheeled robots
– Steering
» Skid steering
» Explicit steering
» Differential steering
Differential drive
=> Differential steering
Wheeled robots
– Fixed or articulated chassis
rocker-bogie system
Tracked robots
Types of track
– modular steel plates
– reinforced rubber
Track configuration
– classical
– with flippers
Legged robots
Also referred to as walking robots
– Number of legs
– Kinematic configuration of the legs
– Gaits
Legged robots
Number of legs static stability
Four-leg robots (quadruped) are more stable
and simpler to control
Single-legged and biped robots require further
dynamic control to ensure balance
Gait generation
A gait is defined by the time and the location of the placing and
lifting of each foot, coordinated with the motion of the body in
its six degrees of freedom, in order to move the body from one
place to another
Periodic gaits are usually adopted in regular terrain, where also
in most cases the gait is continuous. In this case the body is in
constant motion, while all the legs are moved simultaneously
When the terrain is uneven non-periodic gaits and discontinuous
gaits must be adopted, with the legs and the body moved
alternately
Hybrid and snake robots
Hybrid
– Legs with wheels
– Legs and wheels
Worm/snake-like robots
Books