A Hybrid Parameters Estimation Approach for Power Consumption Modeling of Ground Mobile Robots With Unknown Payload

Abstract

Typically, batteries are the main power source for mobile robots, and the practical constraints in carrying them pose challenges in achieving efficiency, autonomy, and safety objectives in robotic missions. Moreover, dealing with battery degradation requires a precise understanding of energy consumers' behavior in the system. Therefore, establishing an energy consumption model has an important role in addressing these challenges. This study focuses on the modeling and estimation of power consumption in indoor ground mobile robots with unknown payloads. We investigate key components and parameters that influence the actuation energy consumption of ground mobile robots equipped with DC motors, particularly in the context of pure rolling without slipping. To estimate the actuation power consumption of ground mobile robots, we present a hybrid parameters estimation approach. This method includes an offline step for estimating the mass-decoupled coefficients of a power model, followed by two online steps for estimating the robot's unknown payload and its actuation power consumption. Simulation and experimental results with a differential drive robot (Turtlebot3) validate the effectiveness of the proposed approach. Additionally, the performance of the proposed power consumption estimation method is compared with two other data-driven models based on multivariate linear regression and multilayer perceptron neural networks. The results demonstrate that the proposed method provides improved power consumption estimation accuracy on the selected indicators compared to the others. We also emphasize the importance of balancing the accuracy of power consumption estimation with its associated costs in the context of the proposed approach. This extra cost includes the energy needed for additional data measurement and processing. Considering this trade-off is crucial for the practical implementation and resource optimization in robotic systems.