Differential-drive Wheeled Mobile Robots Research Articles

Navigation System of a Differential-drive Wheeled Mobile Robot Using a GA-Tuned Kinematic Controller

Navigation System of a Differential-drive Wheeled Mobile Robot Using a GA-Tuned Kinematic Controller

Leader-follower formation tracking for differential-drive wheeled mobile robots with uncertainties and disturbances based on immune fuzzy quasi-sliding mode control

Leader-follower formation tracking for differential-drive wheeled mobile robots with uncertainties and disturbances based on immune fuzzy quasi-sliding mode control

A Study on General State Model of Differential Drive Wheeled Mobile Robots

This study introduces a novel approach by representing a multi-input-multi-output (MIMO) differential drive wheel mobile robot (DDWMR) using the standard state space representation for the first time. This representation facilitates the application of analysis and control system design techniques to MIMO systems. Specifically, the investigation delves into stability, controllability, observability, input-output interaction, and the relative gain array of the DDWMR model. To demonstrate the concept, the established methodology employs the conventional pole placement controller design technique to formulate a state feedback control law for trajectory tracking in the DDWMR system, utilizing both a nominal and a generalized model. The generalized model incorporates distinct parameters for the left and right motor-wheel systems, unlike the nominal model where they are assumed to be identical. Simulation results highlight that accounting for the asymmetric characteristics through the controller derived from the generalized model yields superior performance compared to the nominal model-based controller. Furthermore, the proposed model can be served as an illustrative platform for evaluating innovative MIMO control methodologies in prospective studies.

Flocking and formation control for a group of nonholonomic wheeled mobile robots

The problem of flocking and formation of a group of nonholonomic wheeled mobile robot is addressed in this paper. Based on the cascade structure of the kinematic model, two kinematic controllers are proposed to achieve formation and flocking behaviors. The proposed control laws present a P and PI-like structure plus a feedforward term and do not require complex calculations. The interaction between the robots is modeled using graph theory. The performance of the proposed control laws is validated by experimental tests on a group of four differential-drive wheeled mobile robots.

Velocity and position tracking controllers for wheeled mobile robots

This paper studies the velocity and position tracking control problems of differential-drive wheeled mobile robots with nonholonomic constraints. We show that these control problems can be solved without using the robot's linear velocity in the feedback loop. The proposed control laws are based on the dynamic feedback linearization technique and render the origin of the closed-loop dynamics globally exponentially stable. The stability analysis is carried out using Lyapunov theory. Finally, to validate the developed theory we present experimental results on a differential-drive wheeled mobile robot.

Path Tracking and Position Control of Nonholonomic Differential Drive Wheeled Mobile Robot

Differential drive wheeled mobile robot (DDWMR) is one example of a robot with a constrained movement, Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO), and nonlinear system. Designing a low resource position and heading controller using linear MIMO methods such as LQR became a problem because of the linearization of robot dynamics at zero value. One of the solutions is to design a MIMO controller using a Single Input Single Output (SISO) controller. This work design a controller using PID for DDWMR Jetbot and selects the best feedback gain using different scenarios. The designed controller manipulates both motors by using calculated control signal to achieve a complex task such as path tracking with robot position in x-Axis, y-Axis, and heading angle as the feedback. The priority between position and heading angle can be adjusted by changing three feedback gains. The controller was tested, and the best gain was selected using Integral Absolute Error (IAE) metrics in a path tracking task with four different path shapes. The proposed methods can track square, circle, and two types of infinity shape paths, with the less well-formed shape being the four edges square path.

Robust tracking control of a differential drive wheeled mobile robot using fast nonsingular terminal sliding mode

Differential drive wheeled mobile robots (DDWMRs) have been widely used in various applications due to their maneuverability and energy-saving characteristics. Tracking control of such mechanical systems with nonholonomic constraints in the presence of uncertainties and disturbances has attracted much attention. In this paper, a robust control scheme is developed for trajectory tracking control of a DDWMR in the presence of parametric uncertainties and disturbances. To fulfill the controller design, an inner–outer loop control structure is adopted for the DDWMR. For the inner-loop controller, a fast nonsingular terminal sliding mode (FNTSM) control law is applied for robust disturbance rejection in a finite time. Based on the kinematic model of the DDWMR, the outer-loop controller is designed for accurate trajectory tracking control. Finally, experiments are carried out to validate that the proposed control scheme has more robust tracking accuracy and faster response than an existing robust method.

Optimization of Fuzzy Logic Controller Used for a Differential Drive Wheeled Mobile Robot

The energy-efficient motion control of a mobile robot fueled by batteries is an especially important and difficult problem, which needs to be continually addressed in order to prolong the robot’s independent operation time. Thus, in this article, a full optimization process for a fuzzy logic controller (FLC) is proposed. The optimization process employs a genetic algorithm (GA) to minimize the energy consumption of a differential drive wheeled mobile robot (DDWMR) and still ensure its other performances of the motion control. The earlier approaches mainly focused on energy reduction by planning the shortest path whereas this approach aims to optimize the controller for minimizing acceleration of the robot during point-to-point movement and thus minimize the energy consumption. The proposed optimized controller is based on fuzzy logic systems. At first, an FLC has been designed based on the experiment and as well as an experience to navigate the DDWMR to a known destination by following the given path. Next, a full optimization process by using the GA is operated to automatically generate the best parameters of all membership functions for the FLC. To evaluate its effectiveness, a set of other well-known controllers have been implemented in Google Colab® and Jupyter platforms in Python language to compare them with each other. The simulation results have shown that about 110% reduction of the energy consumption was achieved using the proposed method compared to the best of six alternative controllers. Also, this simulation program has been published as an open-source code for all readers who want to continue in the research.

Leader-Follower Formation Control of Wheeled Mobile Robots without Attitude Measurements

The problem of leader-follower formation of a platoon of differential-drive wheeled mobile robots without using attitude measurements is addressed in this paper. Contrary to the position-distance approaches existing in the literature, the formation and collision avoidance is achieved by introducing a state-dependent delay in the desired trajectory. The delay is obtained as the output of a dynamical system and its magnitude will decrease/increase depending on the distance between the robots. To guarantee trajectory tracking and to overcome the lack of orientation measurements, an output feedback control and attitude observer are proposed based on the kinematic model of the robots. The attitude observer is designed directly on the special orthogonal group SO(2) and it can be used in open-loop schemes. The proposed control-observer scheme ensures asymptotic convergence of the tracking and observer errors. Finally, experimental results are presented to show the performance of the proposed approach.

Minimum Energy Control of a Unicycle Model Robot

Abstract Point-to-point path planning for a kinematic model of a differential-drive wheeled mobile robot (WMR) with the goal of minimizing input energy is the focus of this work. An optimal control problem is formulated to determine the necessary conditions for optimality and the resulting two point boundary value problem is solved in closed form using Jacobi elliptic functions. The resulting nonlinear programming problem is solved for two variables and the results are compared to the traditional shooting method to illustrate that the Jacobi elliptic functions parameterize the exact profile of the optimal trajectory. A set of terminal constraints which lie on a circle in the first quadrant are used to generate a set of optimal solutions. It is noted that for maneuvers where the angle of the vector connecting the initial and terminal point is greater than a threshold, which is a function of the radius of the terminal constraint circle, the robot initially moves into the third quadrant before terminating in the first quadrant. The minimum energy solution is compared to two other optimal control formulations: (1) an extension of the Dubins vehicle model where the constant linear velocity of the robot is optimized for and (2) a simple turn and move solution, both of whose optimal paths lie entirely in the first quadrant. Experimental results are used to validate the optimal trajectories of the differential-drive robot.

Targeting Posture Control With Dynamic Obstacle Avoidance of Constrained Uncertain Wheeled Mobile Robots Including Unknown Skidding and Slipping

This article proposes a targeting posture control approach with dynamic obstacle avoidance of differential-drive wheeled mobile robot (WMR) systems in the presence of unknown skidding, slipping, input disturbances, model uncertainties, and torque saturation. First, a nonlinear model predictive control (NMPC) scheme is presented to generate a feasible trajectory from a starting posture to a targeting posture where dynamic obstacles in the environment and physical constraints of the robots are considered. Second, a robust virtual control law at the kinematic level is introduced for the robots to follow the trajectory. Third, taking the consideration of the unknown skidding, slipping, input disturbances, and model uncertainties in the dynamic model being lumped as a total disturbance, which is estimated by the linear extended state observer (LESO), a disturbance compensation-based saturation controller is designed to make the real velocity of the robot converge to the virtual velocity command. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed control strategy is verified by simulation results.

Energy Comparison of Controllers Used for a Differential Drive Wheeled Mobile Robot

In order to select the best controller for a Differential Drive Wheeled Mobile Robot (DDWMR), an energy consumption comparison relating to tracking accuracy is used as a very strict criterion. Therefore, this paper reviews some well-known controllers designed for the DDWMR. Furthermore, there are presented several experiments with the extensible open-source code programmed in Python. Such an extensible open-source code presentation could serve as a tool for simulating, comparing, and evaluating a set of different control algorithms. The kinematic and dynamic models of the DDWMR and control algorithms are implemented in this open-source code to determine a travel time, a distance between the robot's position and a given path, a linear velocity, an angular velocity, a travel path length, and a total kinetic energy loss of the DDWMR. These simulation results are used to compare and evaluate the given control algorithms. Moreover, the simulation results also enable to answer the question of whether a significant increase in energy consumption is worth shortening the travel path by just a bit. Finally, this paper includes a direct link to the stored experiments which are runnable and could serve as a proof. Besides, users can also easily supplement with other controllers and different paths to evaluate robot tracking control algorithms.

Adaptive Fuzzy Output Feedback Simultaneous Posture Stabilization and Tracking Control of Wheeled Mobile Robots With Kinematic and Dynamic Disturbances

This article proposes a simultaneous posture (i.e., position and heading direction angle) stabilization and tracking control for differential-drive wheeled mobile robots (WMRs) using an adaptive fuzzy output feedback tracking control (AFOFTC) method and a fuzzy basis function network (FBFN). Existing studies on simultaneous posture stabilization and tracking control of WMRs do not compensate for the uncertainties and disturbances caused by kinematics and dynamics (i.e., kinematic and dynamic disturbances). To inhibit the performance degradation caused by these disturbances, an FBFN-based adaptive fuzzy output feedback posture stabilization and tracking control of WMRs is proposed considering the unavailable velocities of the WMR. In this approach, i) kinematic error equations are derived in polar coordinates, ii) a nonlinear velocity observer for WMRs containing the kinematic and dynamic uncertainties is designed, iii) a backstepping-like feedback linearization controller is designed based on the kinematics in polar coordinates to generate a reference trajectory, and iv) an AFOFTC law is proposed based on the dynamics to ensure that the WMR follows the generated reference trajectory. The proposed method can maintain satisfactory posture stabilization and tracking control performance despite the kinematic and dynamic disturbances. A stability analysis as well as the simulation and experimental results are provided to validate the proposed scheme.

Extension of Leader-Follower Behaviours for Wheeled Mobile Robots in Multirobot Coordination

This paper presents the extension of leader-follower behaviours, for the case of a combined set of kinematic models of omnidirectional and differential-drive wheeled mobile robots. The control strategies are based on the decentralized measurements of distance and heading angles. Combining the kinematic models, the control strategies produce the standard and new mechanical behaviours related to rigid body or n-trailer approaches. The analysis is given in pairs of robots and extended to the case of multiple robots with a directed tree-shaped communication topology. Combining these behaviours, it is possible to make platoons of robots, as obtained from cluster space or virtual structure approaches, but now defined by local measurements and communication of robots. Numerical simulations and real-time experiments show the performance of the approach and the possibilities to be applied in multirobot tasks.

Robust Switched Tracking Control for Wheeled Mobile Robots Considering the Actuators and Drivers.

By using the hierarchical controller approach, a new solution for the control problem related to trajectory tracking in a differential drive wheeled mobile robot (DDWMR) is presented in this paper. For this aim, the dynamics of the three subsystems composing a DDWMR, i.e., the mechanical structure (differential drive type), the actuators (DC motors), and the power stage (DC/DC Buck power converters), are taken into account. The proposed hierarchical switched controller has three levels: the high level corresponds to a kinematic control for the mechanical structure; the medium level includes two controls based on differential flatness for the actuators; and the low level is linked to two cascade switched controls based on sliding modes and PI control for the power stage. The hierarchical switched controller was experimentally implemented on a DDWMR prototype via MATLAB-Simulink along with a DS1104 board. With the intention of assessing the performance of the switched controller, experimental results associated with a hierarchical average controller recently reported in literature are also presented here. The experimental results show the robustness of both controllers when parametric uncertainties are applied. However, the performance achieved with the switched controller introduced in the present paper is better than, or at least similar to, performance achieved with the average controller reported in literature.

Sliding mode controller design for trajectory tracking of a non-holonomic mobile robot with disturbance

This paper develops sliding mode controller for the trajectory tracking of a non-holonomic differentially driven wheeled mobile robot (DDWMR) with measurement noise, frictional disturbances and model uncertainties. The proposed controller is designed with the help of an existing Proportional-Integral (PI) sliding surface for trajectory tracking followed by a new Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) sliding surface for velocity tracking. The PI and PID sliding surfaces are based on the kinematic model and dynamic model of the robot, respectively. An adjustable gain switching controller is incorporated for minimizing the effect of disturbances and uncertainties. The closed loop stability of the system is proved using Lyapunov stability criteria. The proposed controller is validated with the help of numerical examples and real-time experiments on DDWMR.

FVO: floor vision aided odometry

In many indoor scenarios, such as restaurants, laboratories, and supermarkets, the planar floors are covered with rectangular tiles.We realized that the abundant parallel lines and crossing points formed by tile joints can be used as natural features to assist indoor localization, and thus we propose a novel indoor localization method for mobile robots by fusing odometry and monocular vision.The method comprises three steps. First, the heading and location of the mobile robot are approximately estimated by odometry based on incremental encoders. Second, with the aid of a camera, the lens of which points vertically toward the floor, the odometric heading estimation can be corrected by detecting the relative angle between the robots heading and the tile joints. Third, the odometric location estimation is corrected by detecting the perpendicular distance between the image center and the tile joints.As compared with the existing indoor localization methods, the proposed method, called floor vision aided odometry, is not only relatively low in economic cost and computational complexity, but also relatively high in accuracy and robustness.The effectiveness of this method is verified by a real-world experiment based on a differential-drive wheeled mobile robot.

Robust-flatness Controller Design for a Differentially Driven Wheeled Mobile Robot

This paper addresses the problem of robust motion control of a Differentially Driven Wheeled Mobile Robot (DWMR). Using the fact that DWMRs are differentially flat systems, the motion control design is relatively simplified by defining the desired motions of the robot in the flat output space of the system. The accurate and the robust trajectories tracking are provided firstly, by imposing the sliding manifold from the flat output space of the system. Secondly, an adaptive gain discontinuous control law -adaptive sliding mode controller- is introduced to drive to zero in finite time such sliding manifold, despite model uncertainties and external disturbances. The system stability is proven using the Lyapunov theory. Compared with classical Feedback control algorithms and using the laboratory test prototype, Pioneer 3DX, simulation and practical tests are presented to illustrate the performances of the proposed approach in the presence of unknown external disturbances.

Tracking-Error Fuzzy-Based Control for Nonholonomic Wheeled Robots

In this paper, the trajectory to be tracked by a differentially driven wheeled mobile robot (DDWMR) is controlled. The considered DDWMR has a chassis with two active wheels and a front idle wheel. After introducing the kinematic model of the robot, the robot trajectory tracking problem using fuzzy and optimal fuzzy logic methods will be analyzed. Also, the same mission will be conducted using model predictive control (MPC) method. Minimizing the path tracking error is the objective of the controllers design. Moreover, the velocity and acceleration constraints are included in the proposed controllers design procedure to prevent the DDWMR from slipping and path curvature deviation. Finally, tracking error results for fuzzy, optimal fuzzy and model predictive controllers are compared. The tracking error analysis of the obtained simulation results, in MATLAB software, reveals the better performance of the designed fuzzy controller (FC) over the MPC, and the better performance of the designed optimal fuzzy controller over the FC.

Sequentially switched fuzzy-model-based control for wheeled mobile robot with visual odometry

• The T–S fuzzy-model-based control for wheeled mobile robot is proposed. • The visual odometry (VO) is used for robot localization. • The stabilization is guaranteed based on the Lyapunov stability criterion. • The practical constraints on the VO are enforced in the control design. This study focused on the Takagi–Sugeno (T–S) fuzzy-model-based control design for the differentially-driven wheeled mobile robot with visual odometry. The position and posture of the mobile robot are estimated by visual odometry. The polar kinematic model of the mobile robot is exactly converted to the T–S fuzzy model and then the fuzzy control design is synthesized to the fuzzy model. The sequentially switched fuzzy control design includes turning, forward motion as well as position and posture control modes. The stabilization is guaranteed based on the Lyapunov stability criterion. The practical constraints on the visual odometry are also satisfied in the control design. Finally, the experiment results demonstrate the effectiveness of the fuzzy-model-based control design for the mobile robot with visual odometry.