Damping and Transfer Control of Liquid in a Cylindrical Container Using a Wheeled Mobile Robot

A spherical pendulum-type model is constructed to represent liquid sloshing in a cylindrical container, caused by the motions of a wheeled mobile robot (WMR). The model is used to design a path and an acceleration pattern for the WMR in consideration of the damping of sloshing in the container. The curvature radius of the path and the acceleration pattern of the WMR are determined using an input shaping method. A PD controller is used so that the WMR can trace the designed path. Maximum displacement magnitude of the sloshing is considered as a constraint condition in this control transfer system. The effectiveness of the present method is clarified through simulations and experiments.