Trajectory tracking control of a unicycle-type mobile robot with a new planning algorithm

Abstract

Trajectory tracking control is one of the core techniques that impacts the auto-driving performance of a mobile robot. Whereas, there lacks enough work on reference trajectory generation and controller design for practical usage. This paper considers mobile robots with unicycle vehicle model on which most of automatic guided vehicles (AGVs) in real world are built. A new trajectory planning algorithm is developed, and is applied along with a control law considering constraints of the unicycle model and limited motor capabilities. The proposed algorithm is easy to be implemented on real world AGVs, and it yields a fast, accurate and robust trajectory tracking performance. The effectiveness of the algorithm is validated by simulation tests.