Tracking control of nonholonomic mobile agents with external disturbances and input delay

Area of Science:

• Robotics
• Control Systems Engineering
• Artificial Intelligence

Background:

• Nonholonomic multiagent systems (MASs) present complex control challenges.
• Existing control algorithms often assume ideal conditions, neglecting real-world factors.
• External disturbances and input delays significantly impact MAS performance.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate and address the tracking control problem in chained-form nonholonomic MASs.
• To develop robust distributed control strategies that account for external disturbances and input delay.
• To ensure reliable state tracking for agents within a multiagent system.

Main Methods:

• Development of a distributed controller using a switching method to manage external disturbances.
• Extension of the control law with a state predictor to compensate for input delay.
• Rigorous stability analysis for the proposed distributed control algorithms.

Main Results:

• Successful demonstration of tracking control for nonholonomic MASs under disturbances and delay.
• Validation of the proposed distributed controllers' effectiveness through simulation.
• Confirmation of the stability and robustness of the developed control strategies.

Conclusions:

• The proposed distributed controllers effectively solve the tracking control problem for nonholonomic MASs with disturbances and input delay.
• The switching-based controller and the state-predictor-based extension offer robust solutions for practical MAS applications.
• Simulation results confirm the promising performance and stability of the developed algorithms.