Limiting velocity on a mobile body with swivel casters

A mobile body, comprising:

• a main body;
• a pair of left and right driving wheels provided on the main body;
• a drive unit configured to drive each of the driving wheels;
• a pair of left and right swivel casters respectively provided in front of the driving wheels, and each supported on the main body to be swivelable about an axis extending in an up-down direction;
• and
• a controller configured to control the drive unit,
• wherein the controller comprises:
• an estimation unit configured to estimate a representative front-rear distance for the pair of left and right swivel casters with respect to a center of gravity by averaging a front-rear distance from a ground contact position of the left swivel caster to a center of gravity and a front-rear distance from a ground contact position of the right swivel caster to the center of gravity;
• a limit velocity calculation unit configured to calculate a stability limit velocity based on the representative front-rear distance estimated by the estimation unit, a front-rear distance of the one of the left and right driving wheels between respective ground contact positions thereof and the center of gravity, a cornering power of the one of the left and right driving wheels, and a cornering power of the one of the left and right swivel casters when a predetermined calculation condition is satisfied;
• and
• a driving control unit configured to control the drive unit such that a velocity of the mobile body is less than or equal to the stability limit velocity when the stability limit velocity is calculated by the limit velocity calculation unit.