Trajectory Tracking Control of a Mobile Robot Through a Flatness-Based Exact Feedforward Linearization Scheme

Abstract

In this article, a multivariable control design scheme is proposed for the reference trajectory tracking task in a kinematic model of a mobile robot. The control scheme leads to time-varying linear controllers accomplishing the reference trajectory tracking task. The proposed controller design is crucially based on the flatness property of the system leading to controlling an asymptotically decoupled set of chains of integrators by means of a linear output feedback control scheme. The feedforward linearizing control scheme is invoked and complemented with the, so called, generalized proportional integral (GPI) control scheme. Numerical simulations, as well as laboratory experimental tests, are presented for the assessment of the proposed design methodology.