Modeling and Nonlinear Adaptive Control for Omnidirectional Mobile Robot

Abstract

This study presents a complete model for RobotinoMD an omnidirectional mobile robot. This model includes the kinematics and dynamics. It is used for the simulation and design of an adaptive nonlinear control system. The hierarchical control system that is proposed has three levels. The level-one which is the inner loop is used to control the DC motors that drive the robot wheels. A control design method combining an adaptive feedback linearization technique and the Backstepping approach is used to find the controller equation. The adaptation module that is included in the control system maintains the performance of the system in the presence of uncertainties on the inertia, weight and other parameters in the robot dynamics. The level-one controller receives its reference signal from the level-two controller which converts the linear and rotational speeds into desired speeds. This level-two controller receives its reference signal from the level-three controller which is the outer loop controller. The level-three controller equation is found so that the robot can follow a desired path described in a Cartesian space. The proposed control system is evaluated in simulation in the MATLAB-SIMULINK environment. It is compared to a PID controller. Simulation results show that the nonlinear adaptive controller has better performances.