Development and Control of an Autonomous User-Tracking Golf Caddie Robot

This study proposes an autonomous caddie robot system that can automatically track a golf player. The caddie robot is designed to operate in two modes: an autonomous human-tracking mode, and a power-assisted manual driving mode. Mode conversion can be autonomously performed through the driving mode determination algorithm based on the distance and angle between a user and the robot, and angle of inclination. When the latter is too steep for the robot to track the user, the user can utilize a manual mode to guide the robot with minimal force. This study seeks to provide insight into how the high-level controller of the mobile platform should be configured to track users in flat and sloping environments. Experimental results obtained from tests in the golf course verify that the robot can be successfully utilized in golf games.