Design and Analysis of Carbon Reinforced Composite Plate for Robotic Omni-Wheel: Replacement of Costly Metals

The plates of the Omni wheel on which rollers are mounted are made of different materials like Polymers as nylon or metals like Aluminum these materials the ratio of providing strength according to its weight is significantly less. The plate material should be selected to withstand the respective robot’s total weight. So in this regard, the Carbon fiber reinforced polymer plate is designed for Omni wheel plates are used. The hand lay-up method is used to manufacture composite plates with matrix material as epoxy resin and sandwich material is used Lantor coremat. The bending tests were performed, and the maximum bending strength achieved was approximately 2.2 KN. The theoretical calculations reveal that the induced bending stress is 209.18 N/mm², while the experimental results indicate that the permissible bending stress is 234.37 N/mm². Analysis was performed using ANSYS on the assembled carbon fiber robotic omni wheel. The analysis showed that the neck region and the upper face of the teeth of the wheel experienced the most significant deformation. Based on the bending test and simulation results, the carbon fiber plate is the best alternative material for the robotic omni wheel.