A Novel Dynamic Three-Level Tracking Controller for Mobile Robots Considering Actuators and Power Stage Subsystems: Experimental Assessment.

José Rafael García-Sánchez,Magdalena Marciano-Melchor,Ramón Silva-Ortigoza,Mario Ponce-Silva,Victor Manuel Hernández-Guzmán,Salvador Tavera-Mosqueda,Miguel Hernández-Bolaños,Jesús Martínez-Martínez,José De Jesús Rubio

doi:10.3390/s20174959

Abstract

In order to solve the trajectory tracking task in a wheeled mobile robot (WMR), a dynamic three-level controller is presented in this paper. The controller considers the mechanical structure, actuators, and power stage subsystems. Such a controller is designed as follows: At the high level is a dynamic control for the WMR (differential drive type). At the medium level is a PI current control for the actuators (DC motors). Lastly, at the low level is a differential flatness-based control for the power stage (DC/DC Buck power converters). The feasibility, robustness, and performance in closed-loop of the proposed controller are validated on a DDWMR prototype through Matlab-Simulink, the real-time interface ControlDesk, and a DS1104 board. The obtained results are experimentally assessed with a hierarchical tracking controller, recently reported in literature, that was also designed on the basis of the mechanical structure, actuators, and power stage subsystems. Although both controllers are robust when parametric disturbances are taken into account, the dynamic three-level tracking controller presented in this paper is better than the hierarchical tracking controller reported in literature.

Highlights

Differential drive wheeled mobile robots (DDWMRs) have been intensively studied by the control community over the last few decades [1,2]
In such experiments, the results associated with the dynamic three-level tracking controller are labeled as yd, φd, ωrd, ωld, vrd, vld, i ar, i al, ird, and ild, while the results related to the hierarchial tracking controller correspond to yk, φk, ωrk, ωlk, vrk, vlk, irk, and ilk
The design of a novel dynamic three-level tracking controller for a DDWMR has been presented in this paper

Summary

Introduction

Differential drive wheeled mobile robots (DDWMRs) have been intensively studied by the control community over the last few decades [1,2] Since these kind of systems are underactuated and they are restricted in their lateral motion [3], any control task becomes a real challenge. In this sense, four control tasks have been detected on the specialized literature [4,5,6]: regulation, path following, obstacle avoidance, and trajectory tracking, the latter being the most studied due to its practical applications. With the aim of achieving a better performance in the DDWMR, recent papers have included the dynamics of the power stage [7,8,9,10]

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion