Differential flatness-based adaptive robust tracking control for wheeled mobile robots with slippage disturbances

Area of Science:

• Robotics
• Control Systems Engineering

Background:

• Wheeled mobile robots (WMRs) are crucial in logistics and industry.
• Existing motion control methods often neglect slippage, leading to performance degradation and instability.
• Multidirectional slippage (longitudinal and steering) significantly impacts WMR control.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a robust motion control strategy for WMRs that explicitly addresses multidirectional slippage.
• To propose an adaptive robust control (ARC) method capable of handling unknown system uncertainties.

Main Methods:

• Established a kinematic model incorporating differential flatness via dynamic feedback-linearization.
• Developed an adaptive robust control (ARC) strategy leveraging the properties of differential flat systems.
• Implemented adaptive estimation of uncertainty bounds for enhanced control robustness.

Main Results:

• The proposed kinematic model accurately captures WMR behavior with slippage.
• The ARC controller demonstrated effective stabilization of the WMR system under slippage disturbances.
• Satisfactory control performance was achieved despite unknown upper bounds of system uncertainties.

Conclusions:

• The developed kinematic model and ARC method provide a robust solution for WMR motion control with slippage.
• The adaptive estimation of uncertainties enhances the controller's applicability in real-world scenarios.
• Experimental validation confirmed the effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed approach for WMRs experiencing slippage.