Online Odometry Calibration for Differential Drive Mobile Robots in Low Traction Conditions with Slippage

This paper addresses a systematic method for odometry calibration of a differential-drive mobile robot moving on arbitrary paths in the presence of slippage and an algorithm encoding it which is well fit for online applications. It exploits the redundancy of sensors commonly available on ground mobile robots, such as encoders, gyroscopes, and IMU, to promptly detect slippage phenomena during the calibration process and effectively address their impact on odometry. The proposed technique has been validated through exhaustive numerical simulations and compared with other available odometry calibration methods. The simulation results confirm that the proposed methodology mitigates the impact of poor calibration, conducted without considering possible slipping phenomena, on reaching a target position, reducing the error by up to a maximum of 35 times. This restores the robot’s performance to a calibration condition close to that of a slip-free scenario, confirming the effectiveness of the approach and its robustness against slippage phenomena.