This paper presents a final-year project recently completed at Massey University,
New Zealand. The research started upon an existing omni-directional platform built
of a box-like aluminium chassis, four electric window winder motors and four
Mecanum wheels [12]. The aim of this project was to provide the platform with
motion control that could be programmed to accommodate various robotic
behaviours specified. With respect to the path following behaviour, two optical mice
were attached to give positional feedback for closed-loop control and dead-reckoning
for navigation and a Mitsubishi M16C/62 microcontroller was interfaced and
programmed to implement robotic behaviours. A closed-loop control in Cartesian
space was proposed to control x- and y-movement and rotation motions of the
robot.